


Something About Shining Spirits

by acaciapines



Series: pokémon mystery dungeon: taz edition [2]
Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, a taz adaptation of the eos special episode 'in the future of darkness', lup doesn't make many appearances but by god does taako love his sister, once again: the crossover only i wanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-10-20 04:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20669069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaciapines/pseuds/acaciapines
Summary: Taako sacrificed himself for his sister and her best friend. He was ready for that to be the end of his story, just one big, noble gesture, and kick it in the ether while his sister went on to save the world. With all the bullshit he's been through just to get to this point, he's pretty sure he's earned it.But when he wakes up back in the still frozen future, with nobody around but That Guy Who Tried to Kill Him (But Also Used to Be a Close Friend) he decides yeah? Okay? Fuck this.He's not going to live forever, hell, he probably won't live more than a few hours before the future collapses in on itself, but if he can buy Lup and Barry enough time to go be heroes and save the world...then yeah. He'll take on a rampaging goddess single-handed, and if That Guy decides to tag along...maybe Taako can work with him just long enough for his efforts to matter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a sequel! it'll make more sense if you read the [first one!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19216804/chapters/45689275)

Taako remembers it like this:

A burning rage he’s not sure he’s ever felt before, because that was always Lup. But he feels it now, feels ice form from nothing around him as he bares his teeth in a snarl, and tackles Kravitz to the ground in front of the Dimensional Portal. He digs claws into fur, sets icicles like fangs to keep Kravitz still when the weight of Taako’s smaller body won’t be enough. He’s wants him gone. He wants to take the world in his paws and forcibly change the shape of it. He wants a world where Lup will be safe, and if Kravitz is trying to take that away? Then he doesn’t need to be here.

Taako’s heaving in every breath, he hears rattling and spluttering in his chest. The exertion to keep the ice and keep himself steady is enough to make his head spin. There’s heavy hanging from his neck, and he slices the necklace in two. Time gears clatter together when he grabs the severed vine in his jaws and throws it towards Lup.

It was always her who would be the one to save the world. Taako’s just here because that’s what he does: he follows Lup, because she’d get herself hurt if he wasn’t there to watch her back.

“Taako?” Lup asks, and there’s something scared in her voice. But she’s talking. She’s alive. And that’s all Taako could ever want.

She has to save the world. Taako knows death, he’s known it ever since his eyes first opened and he saw the everlasting dark of his world. He’s known he’d die on this mission since he signed up for it.

He digs his claws in deeper. Kravitz snarls below him, trying to break free, but Taako brings the ice closer to his neck. Kravitz’s pulse thumps wild, erratic.

Taako _laughs_. He looks back at his sister: burning, beautiful, resplendent. She’s truly the best of the two of them, and he just wishes Jirachi could’ve gotten to her sooner.

There’s nothing left for him, in this world, but for Lup, she’s got...a friend. A possibility. A little ghostly shadow in a red robe and an eye socket scarred to hell by Kravitz.

Taako’s never been prouder of her.

“I love you,” Taako says, and he shifts like he’s about to pounce, splaying claws to get a better grip. “I was lucky to have you as a sister.”

His last words, and he’s never meant anything more.

He shoves Kravitz for the portal, and the two of them tumble in. Taako grabs the last threads of his sister’s warmth from his memories, and thinks _I know you can do it, Lup._

And then he dies.

* * *

Taako wakes up to gray, dark, and also, what feels like literally every part of him on fire. He yelps without meaning to, a little sound that slips out as he tries to struggle to his paws. He’s…not dead? He thought he’d be dead. He accepted that. Where…

He looks around once he makes it to his paws, wobbling but able to mostly keep his balance, eyes squinted to try and keep the headache down. There’s…stone. He can’t feel the wind in his fur, anymore. He can’t feel warmth. Does that mean…

“Fuck!” he yells, when he finally puts all the pieces together. He’s back in his time! Of course he is! The one time he tries to be noble and heroic like Lup always pushed him to, and he can’t even do that right.

Lup and Barry should’ve saved the world. Without Kravitz there to stop them, they should…they should’ve been free to go ahead. Right? Right. So…why is everything still frozen and terrible? Did…

Taako bites back a snarl. Lup wouldn’t fail at this. He’s confident that she can do this. So…not yet, he decides. They’re probably climbing to Temporal Tower, or something. He’ll notice changes soon, he’s sure.

A sharp pain in Taako’s gut sends him staggering again, as he tries to both stay upright and curl in on himself, whining softly. It’s too cold for pain, right now. Whenever he’s sick or hurt, all he wants is to hide against Lup and her gentle fires, soak up that warmth like he’ll die without it. But he can’t even have that. He’s got rock, or his own ice.

He sighs, but luckily for him, the stabbing pain ebbs into something a bit more bearable. Now he’s just gotta…hell. See what he can do with himself. He’s in a little dead-ended clearing—if he was at full strength, he’d have no trouble climbing up, but he’s nowhere near that, so his only options are to head to the left, down a little path, or head up, where there’s a cave ahead. He’s alone, he’s pretty sure, should probably look around to—

Ah. Taako drops into a crouch, as he creeps towards what he hopes is the unconscious body of Kravitz. Makes sense that he’d be here; Taako did drag him back into the future with him, leaving Lup and Barry the past to save. Also confirms he isn’t dead, because while Taako may not believe much in an afterlife, he knows if there is one that Kravitz will be nowhere near his. Thank everything Taako woke up first, or he'd be fucked.

Taako noses at Kravitz’s side, ears pricked and alert for the first sign of motion, so he can jump back if needed. But Kravitz seems…asleep. He’s not reacting when Taako pokes him with his nose, and Taako knows from Lup that his nose is cold and wet and ‘it fucking sucks, Taako, stop it!’ He smiles to himself, pulling back to sit. At least she’s not trapped here with him. He’d rather she enjoy the sun and the wind as much as she can before the both of them are pulled apart by time changing.

His ears twitch. Is that…Kravitz still hasn’t moved, so it can’t be him, but he heard footsteps. So, who…?

He spins to the tiny path just in time to, one, nearly trip over his own paws, but more importantly, see a Sableye. His ears flatten and he bares his teeth in a snarl—he’s too hurt to actually take on a Sableye, but if he can keep it from ever getting to that point…

“Sableye,” Taako growls. He’s got Kravitz, he could probably use him to barter for his freedom if it comes to that. Taako readies himself to attack, even still, misdirect with a dazzling gleam and maybe dig if he’s got to, it worked the last time and from what he knows of Sableye, they’re more grunts than anything. Not the smartest.

“Taako?” the Sableye squeaks, before it turns and runs. Which is great news for Taako, actually, who pricks his ears back up, sitting a bit taller, before he doubles over from pain once again. Fuck. If only he was near Dusk Forest, he could go raid Istus’s stash and gorge himself on Oran Berries until Lup and Barry saved the world.

Shit. He scrapes his claws against stone. He believes in the two of them to succeed. He has to. Because Taako’s lived in the world of darkness long enough, and he’s not going to deal with it for the rest of his life, especially not when the only warm thing he’s ever had, his sister, is decades away.

Actually…he has been found already. It would be stupid to stick around. Maybe he could try to find his and Lup’s old den, curl up there for old-times' sake. Sure, it wasn’t good, but it had the best nest they could find and a few stupid toys he made out of his ice, way back when they were too young to understand how shitty the world was and still played with toys.

Yeah. That’s his best bet. He’s pretty sure he never told Krav—nope, _fuck, _he invited Kravitz over that one time because Kravitz was acting weird and Taako thought he’d gotten into a fight with his mom, or something! And then a solid week later he betrayed them! Why did he ever think trusting anyone other than Lup was a good idea?

Well. He does trust Istus. She’s okay. And Lup trusts Barry, which means Taako does too, by extension. Hmm.

Kravitz stirs and all of Taako’s thoughts go flying out the window as he leaps back. His pelt prickles with tiny icicles as Kravitz groans and stumbles to his paws. The Absol blinks, and seems to notice Taako, because he narrows his eyes and snaps his teeth.

“You,” Kravitz says, low, and Taako’s pelt fizzes some more. There isn’t anywhere for him to run—Kravitz is between him and the pathway, Taako probably couldn’t get to the cave in time, he for sure can’t climb…but cave is his best bet. Kravitz charges for him, and…

…he falls. Stumbles over his paws and goes crashing right back to the ground. Taako squints at him as he yelps out a sharp sound of surprise, and realizes, shit! Kravitz is just as hurt as he is!

“You’re still injured from our fight!” Taako crows, wanting to jump up, but knowing he would just fuck up and that would be plain embarrassing. His voice goes teasing, a bit of a bitter edge to it. “Don’t push yourself!” he says, tails curling.

“Taako,” Kravitz spits, pushing himself back up, though he keeps his distance, shaking fur out of his eyes. “I see we’re…back.” He blinks. “Wait. Back?” He looks around, probably taking in what Taako realizes: this is the same world they left. “Lup and Barry failed to change the future,” Kravitz says, sounding almost astonished. “We’re not…”

“Haven’t,” Taako corrects, “the two of them _haven’t yet_ changed the future. I’m sure we’ll notice effects soon.” He shakes tiny bits of ice out of his pelt. Kravitz doesn’t seem like he’s up for attacking him, not now.

“Effects,” Kravitz says blankly. “You mean, effects like us fading away. Effects like this entire world dying.”

“Yup,” Taako says, glancing up at the grayscale sky. Huh…is that Temporal Tower in the distance? That might be a better place to go. Primal Dialga’s gotta know Kravitz has failed her, and Taako isn’t about to let her fuck everything up by doing something dumb and sending somebody new into the past.

“I don’t understand how you’re okay with that,” Kravitz mutters, more to himself than Taako, but Taako’s got time and would love for Kravitz to be distracted with conversation, rather than trying to kill him.

“The world fucking sucks,” Taako says, “did you see the same past I did? See the same sunrises? Felt wind? Saw trees blowing in it? We’re all going to die either way, might as well die making sure the world will actually be worth living in.” He starts heading for the cave, as Temporal Tower is that way. Kravitz doesn’t move to follow him. Good. Taako doesn’t want him to. “You’ve already lost, Krav. Just give up so I don’t have to deal with you.”

“I haven’t lost—” Kravitz snarls, but cuts himself off, and Taako snorts. “Where are you going?” Kravitz asks, instead.

“Temporal Tower,” Taako says, “gonna go fight Primal Dialga. The Sableye found us, so it’s not like I’m gonna stick around here, and I mean, honestly, neither should you. Doubt she’s happy with how massively you’ve fucked this one up.”

“You’ll die,” Kravitz says, as Taako wobbles his way over to the cave, cursing his injuries the entire way. Kravitz takes a step forward, one paw raised, like he wants to try to do something. “You’d have to be at full strength to even consider taking her on, what are you expecting to happen, Taako?”

“Vulpix,” Taako corrects, because he’s fucking tired of Kravitz acting like he has some type of right to his name.

“I—what? Taako, that’s ridiculous, I’m not stupid enough to attack you like this, and I know your name,” Kravitz says, scoffing. Taako spins to face him, eyes narrowed.

“Did I fucking stutter, Krav? Who made my sister think I was the villain? Who’s the reason that my own heart looked me dead in the eye and saw nothing but a stranger? That’s right! You! She called me Vulpix, like I was some sort of stranger! I fucking wish it was me and you who were strangers, but no, it’s my own sister.” Taako exhales a breath of frozen air, one he could easily turn around and attack Kravitz with, but he’s not dying until he sees the world changing, and knows that Lup and Barry saved them all.

Kravitz bristles. “I didn’t make Lup forget you,” he says, “that was your own fault! You went through the Passage of Time, nobody knew what that would do! It was dangerous! What did you expect to happen?”

“I’m not rehashing this,” Taako says, turning in clear dismissal. “Don’t fucking get in my way.”

“You can’t just do whatever you want!” Kravitz yells after him, as Taako heads into the cave, ears flat against his skull and pelt right back to cold and angry. “There’s still—there’s still time to do _something, _you can’t seriously want to end the world!”

“Hmm? What’s that?” Taako yells, very much _not_ looking back because Kravitz doesn’t deserve it. “The guy who betrayed us wants to try and stop me? Try to give me advice? And you really thought that would work?”

Kravitz yells something after him, but by then, Taako’s too far away to hear without straining, and he very much doesn’t want to do that. Fuck. Fuck! Now he’s probably got Kravitz coming after him, because he doesn’t know when to fucking drop it. He’s just as bad as Primal Dialga! Wanting to keep this shit world around despite the suffering of others just because they can’t accept that they’d die! And it’s not like Taako’s the only one who wants a better world! While he and Lup were researching time gears, Istus was out talking to Pokémon and people both, and the majority of them? They agreed! That this world was _no-good! _That keeping it alive wasn’t worth it! That changing time and fixing everything was _right!_

Taako, personally, only joined because Lup did, and doesn’t really care if he dies because he and Lup will be going together, and that’s how he always knew they’d go, anyways. If they’re saving the world in the process and get to go down as heroes, well, that’s just a perk!

The cave he’s in opens up into barren valley, and Taako keeps going on. How is his sister doing, anyways? As long as he can keep Primal Dialga distracted enough to not go trying to meddle in the past again, try and stop Lup, he knows she’ll be able to do it, her and Barry both. She’s Lup! If anyone is going to do it, it’s going to be her.

The world of the present really is so much different from the past, isn’t it? The grass underpaw is a dark gray, only moves when Taako trods the well-worn paths, no wind to move the grass, nothing in place for the grass to pop back up after he steps on it, it just stays beaten down and frozen. The sky above is a mottled mass of grays, the pale gray of the sky itself, the darker grays of clouds that once brought rain and thunder, but now, bring nothing. There’s a good chance Taako is the only moving, living thing in this entire valley, as he treks onward to Temporal Tower.

Just him and his thoughts.

It never used to be Just Him. It was always Taako and Lup, Lup and Taako. Taako got so used to being a unit, being two Pokémon that better functioned when they were together, that he didn’t care much if he was seen as odd. All the Pokémon they met who questioned them and their siblinghood—other Vulpix, who wanted Taako to stay with them; other humans, who wanted Lup to stay with them…stupid. Lup’s the best thing he’s ever come across. The best being out there, human or Pokémon. He knows that if it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t’ve made it this far. A frozen world is hard for a lone, orphaned kid. It’s still hard for two, but not as much.

He’s endlessly glad she’s not alone. He’s not such a horrible person that he would claim Lup for himself and himself only—he’s glad as anything that she met Barry, that she has someone to curl up with at when she sleeps and talk to while she’s awake. He’s experienced loneliness firsthand, he wouldn’t want that for anybody!

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss her like he’d miss his heart if it was taken out of his chest. Like he’d miss his pelt if it was ripped off. Lup is as essential to Taako as anything: he needs a heart to pump blood, ears to hear and keep watch, thick fur to keep the most of the snow out, and he needs his sister to be the reason he’s doing any of this, the reason he’s alive in the first place. She’s the one big, bright thing in this world of darkness.

He’s not going to let Primal Dialga, or Kravitz, or anybody—anybody!—stop her. He knows he’ll fade away when she saves the world, but she knows that, too. Dying isn’t the same when it’s on your own terms, and this is nothing but theirs.

Lup, though. Lup’s endless fire and he’s so, so glad she’s finally gotten her wish, their wish. All the nights they spent talking about what they’d do if they ever found Jirachi, coordinating their wishes because it wasn’t fair for Taako to have ice if Lup couldn’t make the fires she held inside literal. It wasn’t fair for them to be twins cut in such different shapes, when they knew they were meant to be together _always. _They made themselves fit together, though. Taako would curl up to her, eating up her warmth when it was cold. He knows now that he probably doesn’t know what true cold is—in a world that’s frozen, there isn’t much variation in temperature. But even though Taako was born of ice, he likes the warmth, likes the squinty-eyed happiness it brings him.

Taako shakes himself with a sad little sigh. He wishes Lup was with him. He’s glad she’s free of this world. He scuffs his claws in the grass and continues onwards, picking up his pace. A steady trot is easier to carry for long distances, but he should focus a little bit more on speed. He won’t need to conserve his energy for much longer.

The valley narrows as he continues on, rising walls of rock. Grass turns to stone, cracked and with tiny pebbles, though unlike pebbles in the past, these don’t move when kicked, just stay frozen against the ground. Makes walking a lot less amusing, if he can’t even absently kick a pebble as he goes, but that doesn’t matter, really. He doesn’t have time for fun. He’s got to keep Lup safe.

Despite being through the valley, it’s still quite a ways to Temporal Tower, as evidenced by the tower still silhouetted off in the distance. He sighs. Hopefully Primal Dialga needs time to recharge her powers—sending Kravitz to the past, along with his little team of Sableye has to take a good chuck out of her. The thought gives Taako the final motivation to slow down and stop, take a minute to just breathe. His injuries haven’t got any better, he can tell, still throbbing away, more noticeable now that he isn’t focused on keeping up his pace.

“Taako!” Kravitz calls, and oh, great. Not that Taako didn’t expect Kravitz to follow him, he was just hoping he wouldn’t have to see him again.

“Vulpix to you, Krav,” he corrects, turning to face Kravitz as he approaches, limping a bit. Taako’s tails curl at that, and he feigns nonchalance, licking a paw and rubbing it over his ears.

“Are you really still—fine. Vulpix,” Kravitz says, “will you stop calling me Krav, then?”

“Absolutely not,” Taako says, tossing his head. “So. Why are you here? You can’t expect to fight me, not in the condition you’re in?”

“Ah, but you’re injured too,” Kravitz says, offering a smile like this is a joke, and he hasn’t spent the past few months in the past hunting Taako down. “That makes it fair.”

“I don’t think you understand how injuries work,” Taako says, squinting. He’s not really sure why Kravitz isn’t being all antagonistic, like he usually is. Is it because he doesn’t have Primal Dialga backing him up? Loathe as Taako is to admit it, Kravitz is still pretty strong, even without her. Are his injuries worse than they seem?

That’s as far as he’s able to think on that, though, because a second later a Sableye comes running in, eyes glinting. “Taako!” the Sableye says, excited, and Taako snaps out a growl, Kravitz forgotten in favor of the much bigger threat. The much, much bigger threat, as following the first Sableye come three more, and oh, great, Taako’s fucked, huh? He’s already hurt and now he’s got four Sableye on him. Fuck. Kravitz was probably just stalling.

“Sableye,” Kravitz greets, sounding pleasantly surprised. Taako glances back to him—what? But sure enough, Kravitz’s has a bit of a wag to his tail, and he’s holding himself a bit taller. Maybe this wasn’t his plan? Then what the fuck was he coming after Taako for? “This is perfect timing, if you’d be so kind as to go ahead and knock out Taako…”

Two of the Sableye lunge for Taako, and he dodges one, but the second one hits him with their claws, leaving deep marks across Taako’s side. He yelps without wanting to, unable to bite back the sound, but still stands on his paws. Now he’s got two Sableye in front of him, and two on either side. Is this…no. No! He’s not dying here, not when he still has to make sure Lup and Barry have enough time to save the world! He’s fucking Taako! He collected the time gears! He escaped the stockade! He survived despite knowing his own sister forgot him!

The Sableye on either side lunge again—but not at Taako, no, these two aim for Kravitz, and Taako watches in wide-eyed shock as Kravitz’s own underlings attack him. One Sableye nearly gets Kravitz in the eye, but he manages to turn in time so the claws just scour his cheek, while the other digs their claws into his leg, and he stumbles, nearly falling over.

“I—what?” Kravitz says, the fur pricking up—fear, Taako realizes. “Why are you _attacking _me, I’m not working with Vulpix, I’m trying to stop him from getting to Dialga!”

“And a pretty shit job you’re doing on that front,” Taako says, ignoring the burning from his side. “Look. Krav. I hate you and everything you stand for, but we’re both hurt, and now we’re both being attacked. We both know I can’t take these four on alone, and neither could you. So let’s just…you say you don’t want to die? I don’t want to die in this moment. I doubt Primal Dialga is going to forgive you for your failures.”

Taako backs up as the Sableye creep closer, pressed up against Kravitz, a position he hasn’t found himself in for a very fucking long time. He and Kravitz have fought together, back before he betrayed them—Lup and Istus both had gone to try and steal a book on the history of time gears, Lup because she was the tallest and could pick locks with her clever paws, Istus because she could get the two of them out of there in a flash, while Taako and Kravitz were left to defend against Primal Dialga’s Sableye, led then by a Dusknoir.

“You don’t know Dialga,” Kravitz mutters, but the Sableye keep advancing, and this is Taako’s only fucking chance, huh?

“She’s obviously decided to attack you,” Taako points out, tensing to flare bright with a dazzling gleam to blind the Sableye. “It’s fight or die, Krav, I don’t know how this is a hard choice for you.”

The Sableye lunge before Kravitz can answer, so Taako just has to hope—he’s been doing a lot of that. He flares in a dazzling gleam, throws himself flat to avoid a Sableye that goes launching over him. He doesn’t target Kravitz and hopes he won’t fucking regret it—and doesn’t.

Kravitz attacks, too. He takes the distraction caused by Taako to tackle a Sableye, the same one that’s already taken some damage after missing Taako and slamming to the floor. Kravitz digs in his claws and bites at the Sableye, and Taako snorts when he winces because he just bit a Pokémon made of solid rock, like an idiot. But it works, as that Sableye doesn’t get up, and stays knocked out.

“Krav!” Taako calls, spinning just in time to get a rock to the face, stumbling backwards with a yelp. He just has to assume Kravitz is looking at him, so he flails his tails and lifts a paw to jab in the direction of the Sableye attacking him, before burrowing underground, narrowly avoiding a claw-swipe that would’ve finished him off. Everything is muffled, underground, but he can still hear the buzz of electricity, and good, never fun to be paralyzed, but always good to use on your enemies. Taako bursts out of the ground to attack and knock out the paralyzed Sableye, Kravitz already at his back to protect him from the other two.

Kravitz isn’t that well off, either—a Sableye flares with sickly purple energy, and hits Kravitz head on, and Kravitz cringes backwards, tail low. Taako flares with his own attack, jumping into the spot Kravitz left behind. He’s half-dead but he’s doing his best, and while one Sableye dodges his dazzling gleam, it hits the other one, who stumbles, knocked out.

“The—” Kravitz coughs, as Taako gets another slash and has to fall back. He feels rock digging into his back. “The thing we did, with the—the books? When it was that other guy, and we were—”

“Surrounded, yeah,” Taako says, his ears pressing flat. He’s not sure how he feels, knowing that Kravitz remembers the same events that Taako does. “Bit sad we’d have to use it for just this one Sableye, but.”

The Sableye lunges, and Taako grabs Kravitz and pulls him underground with him, burrowing as far forwards as he can get before popping back out. It’s all speed, from here—the Sableye, dazed from hitting the wall, isn’t able to attack fast enough, and Kravitz lunges first, slashing into the Sableye with the sharp side of his horn. It’s not the most damage, but it gives Taako the time to charge up an attack of his own, a beam of ice he builds and launches at the Sableye, Kravitz leaping out of the way just in time. The Sableye, after being hit, stumbles over, defeated.

“Hell yeah!” Taako cheers, giddy on victory. When he and Kravitz first used the move, Taako used blizzard—they were surrounded, and he didn’t have the energy to charge up a dazzling gleam that did any damage. But for just the one Sableye, ice beam is enough. He’s nearly dead but fucking alive, and so is Kravitz! Taako trots over to him, squints happily up at Kravitz in a grin, who stares down at him with a sort of confused amusement.

“You were right, I don’t think either of us could’ve taken them on alone,” Kravitz says, stepping carefully over the fallen form of a Sableye, struggling to stand. Taako trots after him, an ear pricked. Behind them the Sableye stand on trembling legs, and flee back the way they came. “I’m…impressed. Thank you for not just leaving me to die.”

“Hey, no problem,” Taako says. “I can’t wait to tell Lup about this, she’s gonna be—”

He cuts himself off as reality slams back into him, and he stumbles away from Kravitz, breathing heavily. How did he—for a second he was back when they were working together, but, but, this isn’t that world, is it? Funny. He fights side-by-side with Lup and it’s like she’s a stranger. He fights side-by-side with Kravitz and it’s like second nature.

Taako’s ears droop. “Fuck,” he mutters.

“I was wondering why you were acting a lot nicer all of a sudden,” Kravitz says, glancing after the Sableye. “Now that you’re back, though…why were they attacking me? It still doesn’t make sense! The Sableye only follow orders from me or Dialga, why would…”

“So, she ordered them,” Taako says, flattening his ears and sitting stiff so Kravitz can’t read any emotions on him. Taako blinks, staring down at his paws. Fuck. Fuck.

“Impossible,” Kravitz says, “she wouldn’t ever do that.” But even as he says it, Taako can hear the tap of his claws against the stone as he paces, despite not looking over to him. Taako snorts. He knows Kravitz. Pacing is never a good sign.

“Sure, sure,” Taako says, amused, “just saying. You failed to stop Lup and Barry in the past, I’d go out and say you failed to even capture me, because I’m here and free. She’s probably done with you. You shoulda stuck with us from the beginning.”

“She wouldn’t ever do that,” Kravitz repeats, like saying it will make it mean something.

Taako snorts. “Primal Dialga tried to kill me and Lup. She tried to kill your mom! You know, Istus? Your whole entire mother? I get you betrayed us to work for Primal Dialga, but like, come _on, _you have to see now that you picked the wrong side.”

Taako stands, his vision going black and his head going fuzzy, and he pauses to let the blood return to his brain as his vision clears. “Well. I’m going on ahead. Seeya never, Krav. It’s been…pretty shitty.”

He turns, limping his way forwards. If he runs into the Sableye again he’s fucked, but hopefully they’ve been too badly beat up to try and come back. Fuck. He’s going to have to climb all the way to Temporal Tower like this, isn’t he? He’ll be lucky to just make it to the top without losing his balance and falling off.

“Wait!” Kravitz calls, and his nervous pacing comes to a stop. Taako pricks an ear, looking back. “I—look. We’re both very bad off. You stand even less of a chance against Dialga than you did before. If you come across even one Pokémon with bad intentions—and you know as well as I do that darkness can affect Pokémon and make them more vicious—”

“Like you,” Taako mutters under his breath, but Kravitz doesn’t seem to hear him.

“—you’d be done for. And the same goes for me. We’re equally hurt. And you’re going to Temporal Tower? Well, I want to find Dialga and talk to her, because I don’t believe for a second she’d turn against me like this. Since we have similar goals—”

“Aren’t you still on Primal Dialga’s side?” Taako hisses. That one, he’s pretty sure Kravitz heard, as his tail twitches a bit, though he doesn’t comment on it.

“—I’m proposing a temporary truce.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Taako asks, his ears standing up in surprise. Kravitz just stands there, smiling. What? What? What? Taako was half-listening to his speech and now this? What, is Kravitz planning to betray him a second fucking time? Really, really wants to get that final stab in Taako’s back before he dies for good?

“I’m not going to betray you,” Kravitz says, rolling his eyes, and Taako bares his teeth at Kravitz half-heartedly. Stupid that Kravitz can still read Taako’s tells.

Wait. Taako also can still read Kravitz’s tells. And they do fight well together…and it would be a lot easier to limp up a tower if he had someone to lean on…and he has always preferred to travel with company…

He stays sitting. Lets his ears settle into something more like interest. “I know you’re smart enough to see the benefits in teaming up,’ Kravitz continues, and Taako’s tails flick. So he’s moving to compliments, now? “And if we do decide to spilt, I won’t just capture you. If I’m being honest…I really don’t have much of an interest in capturing you, at this point. What would it accomplish? Your sister and Barry are the ones in the past, and I can’t do anything about that. You won, Vulpix. I’ll…accept that.”

Taako hums. “Yeah, sure,” he says. It’s the use of Vulpix that convinces him—an antagonistic Kravitz wouldn’t remember that. Would go right for the old nicknames to try and get at him. And yeah, Taako’s pretty sure he’ll be able to tell if Kravitz is about to betray him. He’s not going through that again. “And…fine. It’s Taako.”

“Thank you, Taako,” Kravitz says. Taako doesn’t wait for him to catch up, just stands and continues walking, grinning a tad, to himself. He regrets it, when his side keeps twinging with pain and he can’t put his full weight on his right forepaw without buckling, but he does his best not to show that. Poorly, obviously, as he hears Kravitz’s snort of laughter. “You’ll stop calling me Krav?”

“Hmm,” Taako says, glad when Kravitz finally catches up to him so he has something to fucking lean on. “If you prove yourself, I’ll consider it.”

“I’ll just have to prove myself, then,” Kravitz says, light. “Do you have any plan, other than ‘storm Temporal Tower and most certainly die?’”

Taako huffs. “Duh,” he says, speeding up into a slow trot as they approach the next leg of their journey: a wasteland of nothing but discarded junk, forever-frozen so it’s more like rock. “After we’re through here, we’re at the base of Temporal Tower, right? So my plan is, get this: we climb the tower. I kill Primal Dialga. You don’t attack me. I let you live. Lup and Barry save the world, I fade away, I get to meet Lup if there’s an afterlife, or I just vanish if there isn’t one, and nothing matters.”

“That’s a horrible plan,” Kravitz says, glancing down at him. “For…multiple reasons. Can I propose one of my own?”

“It’s a great plan, but go ahead,” Taako says, limping along. It’s only made better because Kravitz is limping, too.

“I want to find out why Dialga commanded the Sableye to attack me,” he says, “and I know the Sableye, they should regroup near Temporal Tower, especially since they can assume that’s where you’d be heading. So, we just have to find a Sableye, and capture them, so I can ask them what is going on with Dialga.”

“Ooh, a kidnapping plan!” Taako says, delighted, his tails wagging a bit. “Loving it!”

“…you are really eager to be a villain, huh?” Kravitz asks, and Taako grins.

“S’not a villain if the Sableye being kidnapped is a bad guy, Krav, that’s common knowledge.” Taako presses forwards, as the two of them make their way through a patch of waste. It’s bumpy, and Taako’s bad paw does nothing to help him scramble up and over larger piles. Kravitz’s limp isn’t as bad, and he’s also got nearly two feet of height on Taako, so he’s able to get over the piles easier. Taako scrambles at the base of one, and whines.

He misses Lup. She quickly outgrew him in height, which was annoying sometimes, but very, very useful for situations like these—she could just pick him up and carry him over.

“Do you need help?” Kravitz asks, peering down at Taako from atop a pile with way too much amusement in his voice, and a bit of a wag to his tail. Taako snaps at nothing. He forgot that Kravitz could be fucking insufferable sometimes. “Or do you think I’d betray you again?”

“With the current betrayal rate we’ve got going on, yeah, kinda!” Taako huffs out a breath that’s more a haze of frost than anything else, and swipes a paw through it, ears flat. Being so fucking short is generally a curse.

“Here,” Kravitz says, hopping down off the pile and landing beside Taako with only the smallest of winces to betray he also has a slightly fucked-up paw. Taako looks up at him, a little nervous, only to yelp out and start flailing when Kravitz bends down to pick him up by his scruff.

“I’m not a baby!” Taako yells, as Kravitz growls low under his breath—a sound very, very similar to that you might use if you were carrying a kid and they were acting out.

“I don’t have any other way to help you up,” Kravitz says, somewhat muffled through Taako’s fur. “And stop moving or I’ll leave you to climb up on your own.”

“I miss Lup,” Taako mutters, but falls still because he really doesn’t think he could climb these piles, like, physically. With Kravitz carrying him, it doesn’t take nearly as long until they’re over the uneven patch of rubbish, and Taako starts lashing out again the second their over. Kravitz drops him, and Taako lands in an unceremonious heap.

“We’d better not come across any more places like that, because I’m not doing it again,” Kravitz says, shaking himself. “You’re very heavy.”

Taako pushes himself up, smoothing out his ruff to give himself some kind of dignity after being carried by Kravitz for about ten minutes. “Good, because I agree,” Taako huffs. “And you can’t be so upset, it was your idea!”

“You were the one whining to be carried!” Kravitz counters, as Taako finishes grooming himself and they start back across the wasteland, having crossed the worst of it.

“I wasn’t!” Taako says, going around a rock that Kravitz just steps over. “And how would you even know if I was, huh?”

“Because it was the same whine you used when you were being overdramatic and wanted Lup to pick you up!” Kravitz shoots back, and Taako goes quiet, because one, how the fuck does Kravitz remember that, and two, he actually was using that whine. Kravitz curls his tail a bit as they continue onward, and Taako stews in silence.

Teaming up with Kravitz. What has his world come to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome back! in the time between posting this and finishing the other one i did zero (0) work on this story but did come up with three other dumb aus for taz despite being 400k deep into a taz novel so like. that's how my life has been going. hope y'all enjoy this as much as you did the first one, because i sure had fun writing it!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako and his new-old teammate Kravitz climb a tower, terrorize various Pokemon, and maybe have more fun than they should, considering the whole 'are currently enemies' thing.

Taako lies in wait. If he were aboveground, he’d be stalking, light pawsteps as he crept up on his prey, and leaping high before pouncing back down, pinning the subject of his hunt down. But this is a different kind of hunt, so he’s underground, feeling the pressure of dirt and stone around him, as he listens for footsteps above.

And they come, soon enough. Kravitz is good for knowing the general habits of the Sableye, but at the moment, that’s the nicest compliment Taako can come up with. After being held like he was nothing more than a baby…he’s not that into thinking hopefully about his and Kravitz’s team-up. He hasn’t been held by the scruff since the last time he and Lup fought, and she was trying to get him to shut up. It’s not a good memory.

He’s been underground for what feels like forever, now. Maybe Kravitz is getting Primal Dialga to come and kill him…but no, Taako didn’t let Kravitz see where he buried himself. He’s…fine. Probably. He can’t see what Kravitz would gain by capturing him.

His ears prick at the sound of footsteps—two-legged, not four, which means it must be a Sableye. He tenses, waiting for the Sableye to walk past so he can spring out and attack, and…now!

Taako pulls himself out of the ground, his fur bristled up and his tails spread wide, ears shoved forwards and jaw bared in a sharp-toothed grin. The Sableye startles, going to run, but Kravitz leaps out of his own hiding place, and between that and the smart place they’ve chosen, bordered on either side by piles of waste…the Sableye is good and cornered.

“V-Vulpix!!” Sableye says, panicked, looking frantically between him and Kravitz. “Prince Absol!”

“Oh, c’mon, I don’t get a title?” Taako asks, taking a step forwards and keeping the easy grin on his jaws. Sableye jumps again, and Taako manifests a few shards of ice around himself, letting his pelt go cold. Over the head of Sableye, Kravitz gives him a disapproving glare, but Taako doesn’t really care, because he’s having a great fucking time!

“We’d like to ask you some questions,” Kravitz says, and Sableye spins to look at Kravitz, who’s got his horn sparking with a thunder wave. Taako sticks his tongue out at Kravitz since Sableye can’t see, because what was that about glaring at Taako for being _too much? _When Kravitz goes and does the same thing? Kravitz’s tail flicks in a clear way that indicates he’s seen Taako, but isn’t going to be answering.

“Yeah, so you’re coming with us,” Taako says to the now-trembling Sableye, pushing them to get them moving. He takes up the rear while Kravitz leads the way to the little alcove they’ve picked out for this particular exchange—Taako found a fucking cool cave, but it was too dark to see in, and neither of them had any way to keep it continuously lit.

The alcove is good enough. Taako and Kravitz both sit at the exit, pinning Sableye inside, who creeps to the far wall and stares at the two of them, guarded.

“You got a name?” Taako asks, because it’s way to quiet in here.

“Not…not that I’d tell you!” Sableye says, and Taako shrugs. Fair enough.

“That’s not important right now,” Kravitz says, his tail tapping against the stone. “You didn’t just attack Taako, back there. You also attacked me. Why?”

“We-well,” Sableye says, not shaking anymore, but obviously scared. “I—I can’t tell you!”

“Don’t you guys follow his orders?” Taako asks, tilting his head and pricking an ear. “Like. That’s what he’s told me.”

“You know what happened when I’m displeased,” Kravitz adds, and Taako looks at him, because what? The fuck? Is that supposed to mean? Kravitz stands, advancing on Sableye, and somehow, that works.

“We don’t want to do it!” Sableye says, panicked. “Promise! To attack Prince Absol, it’s just…but we had to! We were ordered to; we didn’t have a choice!” Sableye backs further away from Kravitz, inching to the side. Taako summons a bit of ice, just in case they try to escape.

“By _who_?” Kravitz snarls, scraping his claws on the stone. “Because Dialga wouldn’t attack me!”

“By—By Master Diagla’s…” Sableye blinks, as if steadying themselves. “By her new henchman.”

“Henchman,” Kravitz says. There’s no infliction in the word, but it’s just there, a blank statement of fact.

“You—you failed, Prince Absol, and Master Dialga isn’t…happy. About that. So her new henchman, he…ordered us to eliminate you. And we all said no! That we didn’t want to! But.” Sableye trembles. “You…know.”

“Who is this new henchman?” Taako asks, curious. “Is it whoever was it before Kravitz?”

“I’m not a henchman,” Kravitz says, “I’m a _prince, _there’s a difference. But yes, do continue.”

“I can’t say,” Sableye says, and Kravitz advances again, horn glowing with an attack “But!” Sableye says, their arms out and pleading. “He’s a new guy, not anybody it was previously! He’s going to be the final agent sent to the past to stop—”

Taako snarls, and he doesn’t fucking care, he launches himself at the Sableye in a second, wounds ignored in favor of pinning the Sableye down, teeth bared, ears drawn back. His pelt prickles with the ice he already called, and he calls even more, digging his claws into the rocky skin of the Sableye, slipping them between the cracks.

“You fuckers will NEVER get my sister, you hear me?” Taako growls, and he’s ready to go in for the kill when Kravitz grabs him around the scruff and hauls him off, biting down a lot harder than he really needs to. Taako yelps, lashing out blindly, and Kravitz tosses him to the other side of the room.

“We still need information,” Kravitz snarls, though most of his attention has returned to Sableye. “You. This henchman. Where did he get the idea to eliminate me?”

“From—from Master Dialga herself,” Sableye says, wide-eyed and terrified. “The orders came from her, and the henchman passed them on, I—he’s your replacement.”

Taako pushes himself up, dazed from hitting the wall, not made easier due to the fact that he was already fucking hurt! He tries to stumble back over, to get another bite out of that fucking Sableye, because how dare, how dare anybody try to kill Lup, he won’t let that happen! But before he can do that, Kravitz growls out a sound that is a falsification of a laugh.

“You say Dialga’s replaced me,” he says, and he lashes at Sableye, releasing the crackle of energy in his horn, but Sableye dodges, barely, and Kravitz’s horn instead sticks into the stone wall, letting out of burst of psychic energy when it does so. Sableye, seeing the opportunity, bolts, and neither of them are in any shape to chase after them.

“Krav…?” Taako asks, keeping his distance, uncomfortably aware that Kravitz was trying to kill him an hour ago, and now he looks like he’s maybe losing it, a bit. A truce means nothing if one party tries to break it, and…Taako was just thrown against the wall.

“Dialga wants me eliminated,” Kravitz says, “Dialga wants to replace me!” He laughs, bitter and angry, and Taako, to be safe, takes another step back. “Well? You must think me pathetic, Taako, huh? Laugh! Go ahead!” Kravitz laughs himself, angry and bitter, and yanks his horn out of the stone wall with a growl.

“I’m just not going to get involved in whatever drama you have with Primal Dialga,” Taako says, ears flat, “you do you. I’m not gonna stop you from freaking out. I mean, a tad hypocritical, you throwing me off Sableye when you were trying to do the same thing, but, uh, you don’t attack me and I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.”

“Dialga eliminating me!” Kravitz says, as though he didn’t hear a word Taako said. “Can you believe it? Something like that?” This, he directs to Taako, spinning to face him. His fur is bristling, he’s got one eye hidden by fur, the other narrowed, and his tail is lashing.

“With what I know about Primal Dialga,” Taako says, a bit emboldened when Kravitz doesn’t seem to be turning on him, “yeah, absolutely seems up her alley. But I’m not really worried about her right now, I’m worried about this new henchman who’s looking to get to the past. I’m going to kill him if I see him.”

“Yes,” Kravitz says, “I can agree with you there. I’m absolutely willing to attack him. But…” Kravitz snarls, though it’s not as aggressive as his last few—Taako gets the feeling that he’s maybe mostly over his rage, now. “I can’t…Dialga wouldn’t do something like this. I bet it’s all just a lie the henchman made up. Very well!” He turns like he’s leaving the alcove. “I’ll continue with you to Temporal Tower. I need to verify what Dialga’s intentions are.”

“Cool,” Taako says, trying to keep the unease out of his voice. Kravitz…really believes in Primal Dialga, huh? When the time comes…yeah. Kravitz will probably side with her, which means Taako, in his already weakened state, is going to have to fight two Pokémon, one of which is a goddess. Three, counting the henchman, though if Kravitz also hates him…who knows. Maybe they’ll encounter the henchman first, and then Taako will still only have to just fight the two.

Even then…he can’t win against both Kravitz and Primal Dialga. Not without being outrageously lucky, a thing he’s not known for: see, his sister forgetting about him. Fuck. If only Lup was here, huh? And she’s a Vulpix now! They’d be unstoppable, if only she had her memories. If only she remembered him, chose to go with him, not Barry—

No. Taako’s not jealous of Barry. He’s fucking glad Lup has someone. He’s not so petty that he can’t be happy for his sister, he refuses to let himself go that low. He’ll take on Primal Dialga and Kravitz and the new henchman if he has to. He doesn’t even have to win! Just keep them distracted until he sees the world changing, sees the signs that Lup and Barry have finally saved the world. He can do that!

“Are you coming?” Kravitz asks, already out of the alcove and very much impatient, his tail flicking behind him.

“Yeah!” Taako says, shaking himself and hurrying after Kravitz. “Yeah, just…psyching myself up. Let’s go.”

He’d move mountains for Lup, is the thing. Taking on a goddess and two other powerful Pokémon who want him dead? Yeah. Why not? Lup is always, always worth it.

* * *

The Temporal Tower of his time isn’t much to look at. It’s all in grayscale, what was once grand columns and intricate designs now little more than rubble, split throughout with cracks, and chunks of tower littering the floor. It’s a lot shorter than the one in the past, Taako notices as he looks up to see the pinnacle, because the roof caved in on itself when the tower collapsed, legend says, taking out a good half of its height. It’s an old and discarded relic, something once grand, but now, little more than a shadow in history.

“We’re here,” Kravitz says as they climb the steps, rather unnecessarily. He’s calmed since they left the alcove—Taako has no idea what his relationship is to Dialga, but he can admit that he’s endlessly curious. It has to be closer than a boss, right? Because Kravitz calls her Dialga, not Master Dialga like the Sableye do.

A mystery he’d spend time puzzling out if he had any.

“I can tell,” Taako says, blinking at the tower. Lup and Barry…they’re probably climbing Temporal Tower right now in the past, huh? There’s something poetic there, if Taako was one for poetry. But he’s doing all he can, and he believes in the two of them to do the rest.

_Lulu…Barry…good luck, _Taako thinks, hoping that, somehow, the two of them can hear it. He sighs, and takes the first step into Temporal Tower.

It’s not that hard of a climb. Well…for the most part. Some parts are easy enough to climb, but in other places, entire floors are missing, or sections from above have long-since collapsed, and Taako has to climb up pile after pile of rubble. At least it’s frozen, and he only has to deal with the climbing part, and not the part where rocks skid and slide—a new thing he found out about in the past, and one of the few parts he’s willing to leave behind. There are even some sections where Kravitz has to haul him up, and Taako mostly just doesn’t fight it, going limp to get things over with faster. It’s embarrassing. The second he can, he’s getting his paws on an Oran Berry.

“Hey, Taako,” Kravitz asks, at one of the easier sections, where the cracks aren’t too big, and can mostly but jumped over with only a little concentration to make sure you get far enough. “When we get to the top…are you going to attack right away?”

“Dunno,” Taako says, leaping over a crack and landing neatly on the other side. His paw doesn’t hurt as much, anymore, which is really good for jumping. Well. It does still ache, and landing on it isn’t doing any favors, but it could be worse. “The second I see any trouble, I’m moving in, and if that new henchman is there, all bets are off, I’m killing him first and you won’t be pulling me off this time.”

“I won’t,” Kravitz confirms. “I…can you at least give me some time to talk to Dialga? Just to confirm she didn’t order me eliminated?”

“No way, Krav,” Taako says, bristling with ice and hating how it means Kravitz will instantly know he’s upset. This would be a lot easier if Kravitz had just been his enemy from the beginning. Knowing that Kravitz remembers everything Taako’s ever said or done is fucking awful. “You talk to her, you’re going to side with her. I’d super love not to fight you and Primal Dialga and probably that henchman all at once.”

“I’ll help you with the henchman,” Kravitz mutters darkly, his tail lashing at the mere mention of him, and Taako snorts. Kravitz gives him a glare, but it’s not that harsh. “Fine. I’ll let you attack Dialga, and then I’ll just talk to her when you lose. Is that fair?”

“Won’t lose, but yeah,” Taako says, making his voice stay steady, rather than tremble like it wants to. He knows he won’t beat Primal Dialga. Kravitz doesn’t have to.

The rest of the climb up is quiet, as there’s really not much for them to talk about, not when their truce is coming to an end the second they get up there. Taako stumbles up the last few steps, onto the pinnacle, and looks around. It’s not…as crushing, as he would expect. Everything is crushing in Primal Dialga’s presence; she has those vibes.

The pinnacle looks no better than the rest of the tower—littered with cracks, fallen columns, and in the middle, a gaping hole, bordered on all sides by the upturned floor below, like whatever once stood there was ripped clean out of the ground. Kravitz goes straight for the hole, and since he’s probably been here before, Taako follows.

Peering into the hole proves that he can’t see a bottom, and he also can’t see Primal Dialga. In fact…

“She’s not here,” Kravitz says, sounding confused. He lays down at the edge of the hole, front paws dangling over the edge. Taako creeps back, and keeps his distance. He’s not in the mood to fall in. “She’s always here, I don’t know why she would suddenly move…”

“Fuck, so you’re saying we climbed this tower for nothing?” Taako groans, flopping onto the ground and rolling onto his back, so he can stare up at the dark sky above them. “This sucks! If she’s trying to send that new agent to the past she’d have to chill for a while to recharge, where else would she be?"

Taako’s tails thump onto the floor. A bit of rubble digs into his back. He hears the scratch of Kravitz’s claws as he stands, and pricks his ears, waiting.

“I don’t…know,” Kravitz says, and Taako sees him as he makes his way over to Taako. He sits, and scratches his claws in the ground beside Taako’s head, as through trying to draw out his thoughts. “You’re right, she’d need to regain her power, she sent me and all the Sableye back, but—” He cuts himself off, and Taako blinks up at him, confused. “Taako,” Kravitz says, “there’s another way to get to the past.”

“What do you—fuck,” Taako says, rolling to his paws. His ears go flat with his fear. “The Passage of Time, she must’ve gone after Istus!”

“They wouldn't have to wait for Dialga to recharge,” Kravitz continues, while Taako starts bolting for the stairs.

“Yeah! Let’s pack up and get the fuck to Dusk Forest, hurry up! Dialga’s going to fucking kill Istus, how are you not more panicked? Istus is your mom, I feel like I shouldn’t be the only one freaking out here!”

Taako darts down the stairs, nearly tripping over his paws as he does so. Kravitz follows, but slower, and Taako doesn’t fucking understand him! When Kravitz worked with them, him and Istus seemed pretty close! Sure, Kravitz betrayed them, but with how Istus still seems to hold a fondness for him despite that, Taako just assumed it would be the same with Kravitz!

“I know Dialga,” Kravitz says, as he catches up to Taako, tugging him back before he falls into a rather large crack. Taako growls rather than thank him, even though it really would’ve sucked if Taako fell in there, and jumps it. “Istus will be fine.”

“You’re an enigma, my guy,” Taako says, and they don’t speak the rest of the run to Dusk Forest.

It’s not a short trip, either. Taako only manages to keep himself from collapsing because he knows where the Oran Berry cache is, and he’s counting on it still being there so he can eat until he feels better. He’s not sure how long it takes them, but Taako nearly sags with relief when Dusk Forest comes into view. It’s been too long! He doesn’t want Istus to die, either, and he super doesn’t want this new henchman to get back in past to hurt Lup or Barry!

But they make it, and Taako wants to fall over and never move again, he really, really does, but he needs Oran Berries, first. He stumbles over to the tree, watching as Kravitz does, actually, just collapse where is he, panting heavily.

Taako stares up at the tree, and realizes that he’s going to have to jump up there. He heaves in a breath, and leaps for the lowest branch, which he manages to sink his claws into, and after about five minutes of just hanging there (and with Kravitz coming over to help push him up) he makes it onto the branch. It’s a bit easier from there, if as slow, and when Taako finally makes it to the knot in the truck with the Oran Berries, he doesn’t even bother to bring them down, just settles on the closest branch and eats five berries before he feels the worst of the pain ebb away, and he sighs his relief.

“Toss me some?” Kravitz asks, watching him from the ground. Taako swallows his mouthful, and throws Kravitz three berries, which he catches and settles down to eat.

Belatedly, Taako remembers right, the cache is a secret, probably not the best to show Kravitz its exact location. “Hey, Krav?” he calls, and Kravitz glances up at him, licking berry juice off his jaws. “Wanna pretend like you never saw this?”

Kravitz huffs out a laugh. “I know where the Oran Berries are, did you forget Istus is my mom?”

Taako stretches out on his branch, the climb down a lot easier now that he’s got all his strength back. He lands beside Kravitz on the ground, who stays from where he was resting. “You betrayed her, Krav, I dunno what she’s telling you.”

Kravitz sighs. “I…yeah. Okay. Taako, we’re probably too late.”

“You said Primal Dialga wouldn’t hurt her,” Taako counters, heading with new resolve into the forest, keeping his ears pricked. He notices Kravitz doing something similar, sniffing at the air.

“She won’t. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t already been captured.”

“I mean.” Taako’s ears droop. “Yeah. Didn’t have too high hopes myself. But I’m stopping Primal Dialga from getting to Lup and Barry, so I’m gonna keep looking.”

“I’m still with you,” Kravitz says, and they continue their search. It goes about as well as Taako was expecting. He finds no trace of Istus, just empty, still forest. He checks all the spots he knows she frequents—every little den or tree-hole he’s ever known her to live in, every place she’s ever squirreled away hidden books, all the hideouts the four of them would camp out in before everything went to shit…and nothing. Kravitz picks places, too, spots he remembers growing up in, that Istus liked…but they find nothing by the time they make it to the deepest part in the forest, where a lake begins that eventually leads into swamp.

“She has to be somewhere,” Taako says, desperate, his claws leaving deep gouges in the dirt while ice fizzes and pops in the air around him. “She has to be, if not here then somewhere, I can’t let them get Lup! Krav, please, do you know where she would be?”

“I’m just as lost as you, Taako!” Kravitz says, pacing in front of Taako, near the shore of the lake. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t just have Istus open up the Passage of Time here!”

“…hey,” Taako says, lifting up a paw and staring at the gray dirt clumped under his claws. “I’ve noticed something. Back when we all worked together…you called Istus ‘Mom,’ which made sense, she’s your mom. How come you don’t do it anymore?”

“Why do you care?” Kravitz asks, stilling.

“I don’t, I’m just curious,” Taako says, clawing again at the dirt. “We’re stuck here, we can’t search the entire fucking planet—” he cuts himself off when he hears something from the forest, his ears pricking up and swiveling—there! To the left, someone’s moving, he can hear the crinkle of leaves pushed aside.

“Taako?” Kravitz asks, and Taako waves his tails for silence, dropping into a low crouch as he approaches the sound. Is someone spying on them…?

He hears another crinkle, and he lunges, tackling a Sableye out of the bush it was hiding in, shaking leaves out of his pelt.

“Hold them there!” Kravitz yells, rushing over, and Taako adjusts his grip, readying up a dazzling gleam if the need arises. Luckily, it only takes Kravitz a few seconds to get there, and Taako growls.

“What are you doing here?” Taako asks, and Sableye shakes their head as best they can. He doubts it’s the same Sableye from earlier, as he feels like they would be a bit more scared. “Where’s Celebi? What did Primal Dialga do to her!”

“Where did Dialga take her?” Kravitz adds, nosing Taako aside to take his place keeping Sableye down. Taako is glad to get a rest, shaking out his paw, and shoving his ears forwards as he glares at Sableye.

“You’re squishing me,” is Sableye’s muffled complaint. And then: “Master Dialga ran off in pursuit of Celebi to Frozen Island.”

“The lone island south of here?” Kravitz asks, and the Sableye nods. Kravitz huffs, sitting back and letting Sableye up, who scrambles to their feet and then books it out of there.

“Why’d you let them go?” Taako demands, pawing angrily at Kravitz’s side, though Kravitz just ignores it and pushes him aside.

“A single Sableye can’t get to Frozen Island, we’re fine,” Kravitz says, tilting his head. “Frozen Island…”

“Yeah, how are we supposed to get to some island? Swim?” Taako asks, trotting after Kravitz, because he seems to know where the fuck he’s going. “And what is Frozen Island, I’ve never even heard of it!”

“Aren’t…aren’t ice-type Vulpix from Frozen Island?” He glances down at Taako, confused. “Shouldn’t you know?”

“I’m an orphan, I know fuck all about my past,” Taako says. It’s not really anything that bothers him. He found Lup when he was just about the age where he’d actually be able to remember stuff, and any parents who ditched him, he could care less about.

“Well…it’s an island,” Kravitz says, and Taako snorts, because uh, yeah, he fucking got that. Kravitz laughs. “Sorry. Um…I don’t know too much about it myself, it’s mostly populated by ice-type Pokémon, it’s where Vulpix like you are from. It’s technically accessible by swimming, but that’s only if you’re someone who can already do that, and has the stamina. It’s pretty isolated, because of that. There’s a pair of Porygon who teleport Pokémon over there; if we follow the cliff to the south, we’ll find them.”

“Joy, more walking,” Taako says, but all things considered, it’s not that far of a walk, and after the Oran Berries, he’s pretty sure he could fight Primal Dialga and actually stand a pretty good fucking chance at not being instantly killed, so. He can deal with some walking.

Hmm. Kravitz is also walking way better. Maybe giving him Oran Berries wasn’t the smartest move, because now if he turns on Taako while going to Primal Dialga, Taako’s pretty much fucked.

Eh. He doesn’t need to worry about it. If Kravitz was going to attack him, he would’ve already, because he’s had enough chances. Taako’s pretty confident that he’s safe for the time being. Not that he actually trusts Kravitz, just…

He’s missed having Pokémon to talk to. He’s not really a loner, no matter how much he’s had to fake like he is recently. He doesn’t remember life before his sister, which really just proves it.

Taako sees the two Porygon once they make it to the end of the cliff, the two of them hovering and talking quietly to each other, having not noticed him or Kravitz yet.

“Hey!” Taako calls, because he really doesn’t have the time to waste. The Porygon jump as one, turning to face them, and their eyes go wide. Not, Taako notes with a drooping of his ears, because of him, but because of Kravitz, if they way they’re staring at him means anything.

“Pr—Prince Absol!” the Porygon on the left says, while their right-side friend has a bit of a jerky tremble to their motions.

“It’s been a while,” Kravitz greets. Seeing Pokémon so scared of Kravitz is _very good,_ Taako decides, because even after Kravitz betrayed them, he’s never been…scary. Taako doesn’t like him, yeah, they are for sure enemies, but him? Scared of Kravitz? If they weren’t in a tense situation, Taako would be laughing his delight. “I’m sure you know what I want?”

“That’s…” Right Porygon says, “difficult. We’re under orders from Master Dialga herself to not let anybody go to Frozen Island.”

“And behind you is…” Left Porygon trails off, gesturing a blocky leg to Taako. Taako lifts a paw and waves. “He’s a criminal?”

“I’m taking him to Dialga,” Kravitz lies. Taako’s ears twitch, because that’s a fucking hard sell, Taako could run off at any moment and obviously these Porygon are noticing that, too, because Left looks between Taako and Kravitz, frowning, while Right just blinks. “I’m Dialga’s heir! Are you really doubting me?”

“N—No, not at all, just uh, Master Dialga didn’t tell us you were coming and—” Left’s stammering is cut off when Right jabs at them with a leg.

“We’ll do it!” Right yells, a little shaky. “Just, get between us, and don’t move.”

Taako shrugs, stepping into the empty spot next to Right, with Kravitz on his other side. He’s not sure what he expects teleporting to feel like, and turns out…very weird. Like, really, really weird. How he imagines it would feel to get struck by lightning—his vision goes swimming and his fur tingles all-over, and he can’t actually feel any of his limbs, and then he blinks gunked-up eyes to see that he’s standing again, in a new land. His fur is sticking up in every direction, and a glance to his left shows that Kravitz doesn’t look much better.

Taako rubs the gunk out of his eyes. “This it?” He looks around, at the mountainous, ice-covered land. They’re probably here. He rears up on his hind paws, resting his forepaws on a frozen bit of hail in the air above him. There’s a lot of frozen hail, actually, that and snow alike, all hanging in the air and unmovable no matter how many times Taako paws at them.

“I feel like you could get the answer just by looking around, but yes,” Kravitz says, shaking himself and ducking under a particularly large piece of frozen hail. Taako drops back to his paws to follow after him. “I’m not sure where Dialga and Istus are, though.”

Taako snorts. Great fucking start, huh? “Well, Primal Dialga’s a giant, she can’t be hard to find. And also, how come those Porygon were scared of you? Like, it was hilarious, don’t get me wrong, but what’s up with that?”

He doesn’t mind it—it’s pretty useful, especially since Taako is traveling with Kravitz and thus gets all the benefits that come from Pokémon being scared of him. It’s just very funny to know that the guy he used to watch organize books by color because it bothered him when they weren’t in rainbow order is now second-in-command to Primal Dialga.

Shit. Taako hasn’t thought this much about Kravitz since they were friends, long ago. He should stop.

“You mean I’m not just naturally scary?” Kravitz asks, and Taako huffs out an amused sound. “But no, it’s because being very close to Dialga has its perks. And I’m powerful enough to back up any threats I make.”

“I’d love to see that,” Taako jokes, pricking his ears when he hears what sounds like footsteps. He’s proven right, as a few seconds later a trio of Snorunt come scampering into view, only to freeze when they notice Taako and Kravitz blocking the narrow path, nothing but ice and ocean behind them.

“The Snorunt,” Kravitz whispers to Taako, “they live around here. Are you sure you’ve never been here?”

“Never,” Taako hisses back, which, as far as he knows, is true—he doesn’t know if he was born on the mainland or here, but he has no memories of this island so that’s as good as never coming here. “Hey,” he calls to the Snorunt, who are chattering amongst themselves in a language he doesn’t know, “you haven’t happened to see any other Pokémon come through? By which I mean a tall as fuck Legendary Pokémon named Primal Dialga?”

The Snorunt keep chattering to themselves. Fuck, Taako hopes they can understand him, because if Frozen Island has its own language, he sure as shit doesn’t know it. He glances to Kravitz for help, but he looks just as lost as Taako.

“It’s important,” Taako says as he approaches, hoping that even if the Snorunt don’t know the words he’s saying, they can maybe get the tone. One turns to look at him, and asks him something—he can tell only because the sentence ends with infliction, and Snorunt tilts their head. They’re curious? He has no idea what they’re asking him, though.

“Did you see anyone?” Taako asks again, wondering if he should try to draw it out—there’s for sure a language gap here, which makes sense, thinking back to how Kravitz said the island was pretty isolated.

The Snorunt looking at him says something that sounds like amusement, and Taako pricks an ear, endlessly confused. Yeah. Drawing might be the best way to go. He’s about to start scratching a very bad picture of Primal Dialga into the ice, when the Snorunt looking at him conjures up some ice, and throws it in Taako’s face, knocking him back.

“What the fuck!” Taako yells, struggling back to his paws and shaking cold out of his eyes, growling. “I didn’t do anything to you, fucking—” he snarls, spitting and spinning to face the Snorunt, tails brandished out beside him, only to see that they’re _laughing. _Oh, Taako can fucking show them laughing.

He lowers into a crouch, ready to spring right back at the Snorunt and fight, because shit, they must be working for Primal Dialga if they’re just going to attack him unprompted, but before he can spring and jump, the Snorunt laugh at him a final time, and run back off the way they came. Taako pulls himself out of his crouch, still tense.

“Are you okay?” Kravitz asks, a mix of actual concern and amusement, though it’s mostly amusement. “Vulpix like you live around here, maybe they thought you were someone else?”

“I don’t care what they thought,” Taako says in a low growl, twisting around to lick his still-sticking-up pelt flat. “I don’t care what happens, we see them again, we attack them, yeah?”

“You’re…an interesting Pokémon, Taako,” Kravitz says, watching with a bit of a tilted head as Taako manages to smooth down the worst of his fur, and stand.

“Fuck yeah I am,” Taako says, growling again at the direction the Snorunt ran off in. “You’d better be agreeing with me.”

Kravitz laughs. “Yes, okay,” he says, “if the Snorunt attack you again, I’ll help you. We should really get going, though. There’s only the one way to go, and since Dialga came here before us, possibly with some Sableye, we can expect traps.”

“Yeah,” Taako agrees, staring up at the mountain before them. They won’t be climbing straight up—there’s enough tracks in the snow that he can guess at the path, probably from all the other Pokémon who live on the island, but fuck, is he tired of climbing and walking. “Guess there’s no way to go but up. Fuck.”

He’s doing all of this for Lup. To keep Primal Dialga from sending a final agent to the past to fuck everything up. Taako’s lost way too fucking much for anybody to try and stop time from changing, at this point. He won’t allow it.

Taako heaves in a breath, and starts climbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so...that amnesty finale huh...no spoilers but damn i forgot how good aubrey was. balance will always be my one true love because im a sucker for sibling relationships but amnesty is still real good. 
> 
> in story news. next chapter will be up in roughly a week, depending on how into editing i feel then. hope you're enjoying it!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako and Kravitz have several important conversations.

Climbing, Taako decides, like he has so many times on this journey, is fucking dogshit. Everything about it is awful. If only he was like Lup’s friend, Barry, and could just float everywhere—that has to be better than this. But still, Taako manages to drag himself to the top of the mountain, where the ground is still uneven, but it’s not uphill, and going downhill isn’t that hard, anyways. Turns out? Taako is actually pretty okay with not slipping on the icy patches—his claws grip the ice well, which makes sense, if he’s supposedly from here. Kravitz isn’t as good at Taako, but he keeps up, and still does a pretty good job. The both of them are adapted for cold, mountain living, Taako guesses.

The frozen hail hangs low in the air atop the mountain, some chunks larger than normal. Taako paws up at the lower-hanging ones when he passes them, and none of them even move an inch.

“Least it’s mostly downhill from here,” Taako comments, shifting into a faster trot now that the land is relatively flat, his claws clicking against the ice below him. “Better than just climbing, at least.”

“Yeah,” Kravitz says, sounding somewhat distracted, and then: “Taako! Look out!”

“What do you—” Taako asks, confused, when a tiny piece of ice from above hits his shoulder, which is…weird. All the hail is frozen, it shouldn’t be able to do that. He looks up, curious, and sees…

A giant shard of ice—not hail, but more like a rock that was frozen mid-tumble, after it pitched off a drift of snow and launched into the air—and it’s trembling. Taako blinks once, wide-eyed, and it plummets for him.

_Sorry, Lulu, _he thinks, because that’s going to stab right into him and that’s how he dies, huh? He can’t get his paws to move, even if he could, doubts there’d be enough time. He’s frozen stiff and then he’s moving, not of his own power, but become something furry and soft is slamming into him and knocking him out of the way. Taako stumbles onto his side, and his ears ring with the loud crash of the ice slamming into the ground and shattering, sending up a flurry of ice shards. Taako feels them prickle into his pelt as he tries to stand, because what? The fuck? He was about to be crushed a second ago, what changed?

There are too many tiny shards, clouding the area like fog, but Taako is a creature of ice, so he grabs as many shards as he can and throws them to the side, so they settle quicker, and then he sees…

“Kravitz?” Taako asks, seeing his…his what? Not friend. More than acquaintance. Whatever he is—traveling partner?—he’s lying on the ground with bits of ice stuck in him, larger chucks scattered around him. He’s obviously hurt, and Taako can hear him groaning, but if he was hit by the ice shard then that means… “You saved me? Why?”

Kravitz tries to stand, but his legs give out under him. “Never—nevermind that,” he says, which, uh, no? What? This means something, it has to, Taako thought they were just in uneasy truce, admittedly one he was having fun with, but Kravitz _saved him,_ at a heavy cost to himself. That’s…Taako wouldn’t’ve done that for him! He wouldn’t risk himself like that! This is…

“There’s…fuck—” Kravitz whimpers, slightly, and Taako’s ears droop on instinct, knowing how much pain he must be in. What is he supposed to do? If this was Lup, he’d already be there, whining his sympathy and trying his best, but this isn’t Lup, it’s Kravitz. Fuck! They should’ve brought some Oran berries with them! “Someone…coming…”

Taako pricks his ears and hears the cries of some Pokémon he doesn’t know, words in that language he doesn’t understand, and he can’t do anything but crouch down beside Kravitz as they’re surrounded by four Glalie. Fuck. Fuck! Taako can’t take on these four on his own, not when Kravitz is near dead beside him. Taako growls low warning, and while the Glalie don’t advance, they don’t leave, either.

Okay. Panic later. Figure out how to run now. Try to…drag Kravitz along despite the two foot height difference…

Nope. They’re fucked. One Glalie floats closer, and Taako growls again, tails splayed and brandished out, fur poofed and bristling. He doubts this is going to work for much longer.

“Can you get up?” he hisses to Kravitz, thankful now for the language difference, as it means he can plan without the Glalie knowing what he’s doing. Granted, they can do the same thing, but Taako can’t do anything about that right now. Something rumbles and roars in the distance, and Taako’s ears press flat.

“I could maybe limp slowly,” Kravitz says, trying to struggle to his paws. Slowly isn’t an option! Fuck, fuck, what is Taako supposed to do? He’s in no way physically strong enough to do this—maybe Kravitz is, but not after getting hit with a giant chunk of ice!

Another roar echoes over the mountain, and Taako turns to stare the direction it came from. He’s pressed up against Kravitz and can’t even bring himself to care about that, not right now, not when there’s so many more important things to worry about. If he doesn’t get out of this, Primal Dialga sends her final agent to the past, and Lup’s in danger; Barry, too. Taako can’t allow that. He hasn’t come this far only to fail now.

He just has to get out of this situation. He knows how to do that. Another warning growl, look bigger than he actually is—if other Vulpix live on this island, the Glalie should be able to understand his body language just fine. He doesn’t want to fight, because he literally can’t. He can’t really run, because Kravitz can barely move. If he can get the Glalie to just back the fuck off, maybe they could limp through…

All those ideas are flung out when the roar howls louder than ever, and then, crashing through a large, frozen snow-drift in front of them comes an entire Mamoswine, who roars, sharp tusks on clear view for the world. Mamoswine towers over Taako—if the Glalie were big, about Kravitz-sized, Mamoswine is a mountain of a Pokémon, and they’re staring right down at Taako with beady black eyes.

“Hey…” Taako says, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice. “I’m just gonna…go, so…”

He grabs Kravitz and burrows underground with dig, not really sure where he’s going from here but hoping maybe everyone will just get bored and leave, so he can slowly claw his way through frozen dirt and pop back up somewhere he’s not surrounded, and can panic about what Kravitz saving him means for real, this time. He’s able to get about half an inch before he hears Mamoswine roar, loud even underground, and then he hears a thud that he thinks is Mamoswine hitting the ground again after rearing up, and the world _shakes. _

Taako yelps, as the earthquake smashes around him, ground that was once still jolting into motion and slamming against him, squishing paws and sides and tails. Kravitz moans out a low wail of pain, before he falls silent, and Taako hopes he’s just unconscious and not dead. The two of them are forced out of the ground, and Taako stumbles over Kravitz’s limp—but still breathing, thank fuck—body. If he hadn’t eaten those Oran Berries, he’d be dead. He’s honestly not too convinced he’s not going to just die here.

“Leave us alone!” Taako tries, digging his claws into the snow and snarling as loud as he can, a threat he absolutely can’t back up, but hopefully these Pokémon don’t know that. “I don’t know if you’re working for Primal Dialga or just really hate us or what, but back the fuck off!”

Fuck, if only Lup was here. He’s supposed to be smart but all he can think of is _Lup’s a fire-type, she could melt them._ It’s a useless thought to have when she’s decades away and doesn’t even fucking remember him.

Mamoswine roars. Rears up and slams the ground, but doesn’t cause another earthquake. The Glalie stay where they are. Taako glares right back at Mamoswine, pretending he’s big and bold and unafraid.

He just needs to buy enough time to escape. He for sure has to drag Kravitz, now, which means he’s still going slow and can’t just book it. He can’t fight, Mamoswine would crush him in a single step, and nothing he has is going to be in any way effective against any of these Pokémon, not how it was against the Sableye.

Taako’s not brave like his sister is.

He takes a careful step to the side, keeping his gaze on Mamoswine, keeping himself big and bristling, his eyes narrowed. If he can get through the gap in the Glalie, he could continue downhill, find somewhere to drag Kravitz to…

Mamoswine roars, and the two Glalie both shoot shards of ice at him—both hit Taako, but don’t hurt much. Okay, shit. That’s not working.

“Look,” Taako says, after a pause to see if anybody attacks—they don’t. “Primal Dialga is trying to keep this shitty world of darkness forever! I’m trying to save it! My sister and her friend are trying to save it!”

“Primal Dialga?” Mamoswine asks, and Taako nearly jumps with his excitement—that’s one common word they have! Maybe he looks insane to Mamoswine—if Vulpix live here, then Taako is a Vulpix that can’t speak, is just going around talking in a language that means nothing to the Pokémon here.

“Yes!” Taako says, his ears pricking. “Yes, yes! Do you hate her? Is she here? Me and my, uh, companion here, we’re trying to find her so we can save Istus! Celebi? You might know her as Celebi. Primal Dialga is trying to send someone to the past, to prevent the world from being saved. Don’t you want to feel sun? See a real blizzard, not just these frozen hailstones? Watch the sky change color? It does that!”

It’s hard to keep his voice happy and excited and nonthreatening, when Taako is very much still scared. But he’s not being attacked—Mamoswine, who seems to be the leader, is watching him with curiosity, and Taako…maybe he’s getting somewhere?

“Here, we obviously don’t speak the same language, I’m just going to draw it,” Taako says, and he starts scratching his claws in the ice, carving out shapes and pictures to try and describe the shape of his story with just his own poor art skill. He stays sitting pressed next to Kravitz, unconscious still, but not dead, and slowly, the five Pokémon surrounding them join. The Glalie float closer to peer down as Taako illustrates the time gears, and him collecting them, scratches in Lup and Barry helping him. Mamoswine thumps down, their tusks on either side of Taako, boxing him in, but Mamoswine is watching as Taako draws Primal Dialga capturing Istus, trying to get across that this is a _bad thing, _that Primal Dialga getting anyone back in time will mean no movement, no change. He’s scared, yes, but it’s easy to put that fear into his art, by which he means mostly the lines are very shaky.

But he finishes—everything from when he went back in time, to the now, them trying to find Istus and Primal Dialga. “So please,” Taako says, his tone pleading, because what the fuck does he have to lose at this point, “just…let us go, and point to wherever Primal Dialga is, if you know.”

Mamoswine grunts, a low sound, and the four Glalie disperse. Taako can’t fucking believe that worked. Mamoswine stands, and gestures with their tusks off to the left, and then taps at the picture of Primal Dialga and Istus with a large, three-toed hoof. They move to an empty patch of ice, and Taako, an ear pricked, follows. He watches as Mamoswine, using the side of a hoof, scratches in a picture of their own, of what looks like a series of jagged things, icicles, maybe? With a mountain in the background.

“Are they here?” Taako asks, tapping at Mamoswine’s picture and gesturing over to his own. Mamoswine nods, and says something—sounds like a farewell—and then they lift their head, patting Taako gently on the back with one giant tusk. Taako just blinks.

“Vulpix?” Mamoswine asks, and Taako laughs, nervous.

“Uh, yeah,” he says, nodding, “not from around here, obviously.”

Mamoswine laughs, probably able to understand Taako from his confused tone, and the way his ears flatten apologetically. Mamoswine turns to point to another mountain, this one down south, and then ambles back off the way they came.

Is that where Vulpix live, then? Taako shrugs. He doesn’t care to meet other Vulpix. He already knows who his family is—it’s Lup. With a fond smile, knowing she’s out there saving the world, he moves over to Kravitz, grabbing him by the scruff and starting to drag him off to the left, where he can make out what looks to be a little crack in the ridge.

“C’mon, Krav,” Taako says, muffled through Kravitz’s fur. “Let’s get you healed up.”

* * *

The cave isn’t the best, but big enough for the two of them to barely fit. Taako pants once he’s got Kravitz settled, because he’s fucking heavy and Taako is, already, a pretty small Pokémon. It’s then, though, that the panic he had managed to force out of his mind in favor of trying to get them out of the situation returns. Because, shit. He’s got no Oran Berries. Kravitz is still passed out. He doesn’t want to go face Primal Dialga alone, either…fuck! If only Kravitz just didn’t save him!

Wait, no, then Taako’d be dead. If only the ice never fell! If only they weren’t attacked, even if that did turn out useful as they now know where to go. But...fuck! Taako doesn’t know how to heal Kravitz, and even if he does wake up, he’s going to be hurt!

“Kravitz,” Taako says, because Kravitz is passed out and can’t hear him, “hey.” He noses at Kravitz’s side, like how he might try to wake up Lup. “I know you aren’t dead; we still have to stop Primal Dialga and that new henchman! So, get up and help me. You don’t get to go save me and confuse me on your motives and then die afterwards! Aren’t you the one who didn’t want to die, anyways?” Taako paws at him, pushing at his shoulder, and Kravitz doesn’t wake up. Well, fuck. There goes that plan.

Why didn’t Taako just run and leave Kravitz behind?

He maybe knows the answer. He doesn’t want to think about it. Thinking about it means wondering about why Kravitz would save his life, means thinking back to how traveling with him hasn’t been bad, but fun. Means thinking about how Kravitz remembers all these old things about Taako, all these old memories they share even after being apart (_because he betrayed us,_ something whispers in the back of Taako’s mind, but it’s quieter than it usually is). Kravitz remembers stuff about Taako that Lup doesn’t! Taako’s own sister, and she doesn’t know him, and she chose to stick with Barry, not him.

It’s not fair, Taako thinks. Taako has lived a lifetime with Lup, with another person always _there, _someone to talk to and tackle and lean on. He went a few months with nobody, with Lup missing and him trying to finish what she swore to start, wanting to collect the time gears so when they finally met back up, she’d be proud of him, and he’d laugh about how he went and did what she never could. But that didn’t happen, did it? Lup is herself, but she’s a herself without her memories of him.

But Kravitz.

Taako needs something. Kravitz is, technically, something.

Taako buries his face in his paws, and sighs. Just…keep waiting. Wait until he sees proof that Lup changed the world. Wait for Kravitz to wake up. Wait until they manage to find Istus, and hope she’s still holding Primal Dialga off.

They’re fucked, huh? He never thought it would come to this when he and Lup first joined to help Kravitz and Istus. Back then, he assumed he and Lup were immortal, inseparable. He considered Kravitz his best friend after Lup, and isn’t that funny to look back on? The first Pokémon he let in other than his sister, and he goes and betrays them.

His ears prick when he hears a groan, and he turns to Kravitz, who has his eyes open, blinking in the dim light.

“Krav,” Taako says, hoping his relief isn’t too obvious in his voice. “Are you okay? How are your injuries?”

“…shitty,” Kravitz says after a second, but he manages to get to his paws, which is more than he could do before. “I’m…I’ll be okay. What happened?”

“Convinced Mamoswine and the Glalie to let us go. Mamoswine told me where Primal Dialga went with Istus.” Taako sighs, absently clawing at the ice. “Why did you save me?”

Kravitz is quiet. Kravitz is quiet for a long, long time, long enough for Taako to regret the question and the awkward energy he’s created. Long enough for Taako to stand from where he’s lying, ready to call this entire thing off and just go face Primal Dialga because that’s going to be easier than all this, but before he can move to the exit, Kravitz speaks.

“I don’t know,” he says, not meeting Taako’s gaze when Taako whips around to stare at him, so fast his tails scrape against the rocky wall. “I—whatever we find when we get to Dialga…I just. I’ll need your strength. That new henchman, the final agent…I think if the two of us team up, we could defeat him, and then depending…I don’t want to believe Dialga asked for me to be eliminated, but. I at least won’t fight you.”

“Wait, really?” Taako asks, because whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t fucking that. “You’ll help?”

“Only against the henchman,” Kravitz says, his thin tail tapping against the floor like thinking. “I don’t…like him. And we agree on that much. I just…you don’t have to do this, Taako. You could use the Passage of Time, and you could go back and ask Lup to stop, and she would. She’s your sister, if anyone could convince her, it would be you. You don’t have to do this! The world isn’t perfect, yes, but surely living here is better than dying! Then fading away!”

“Lup is the one who wanted us to join you and Istus in the first place,” Taako says, “there’s no talking her out of this, and I don’t want to. We’re going to die whether or not we save the world, Krav, that’s just…” Taako sighs, returning to his old spot to lie back down, resting his head on his paws. “Why did you betray us?” he asks.

Kravitz scuffs at the ground. “When Istus found out that rewriting the past would erase this future,” he says, “I…Taako, if we changed the future, we’d die! And I don’t want to die! I refuse to die! I just…all of us, Taako, you, and Lup, and my moms…I wanted all of us to live. If that meant going to Dialga so she could stop you…isn’t that worth it? I don’t…relish in what I do. I just want us all to stay alive.”

“Did you ever consider that the rest of us were fine with it?” Taako asks, biting back a growl. He doesn’t…fuck. Does he want to fight? He doesn’t know. He just doesn’t.

“I wasn’t fine with it, Taako,” Kravitz says, “Dialga wasn’t fine with it. I just…how? You heard the same information as me, how could you possibly be okay with your own death? With Lup’s?”

Taako breathes out cold, and it fogs up in the air in front of him. “This is a world of darkness,” he says, “and being someone who has lived in it my entire life, and then got to experience what the past was like…it fucking sucks, Krav. This world? It’s not good. And it doesn’t have to be this way! It’s…we’re all going to die anyways, no matter what we do. The timing of it doesn’t really matter, and if I’m going to die anyways…might as well do it bringing light!”

Taako stands, stretching out the soreness in his legs, and continues, in broad sweeps across the cave as though acting out his thoughts. “Even if I disappear,” Taako says, “you never _really _do, y’know? It’s…the length of your life doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it. And I? I want to shine, while I’m alive, I want to be known all throughout history. Me and Lup both, in all the futures and all the pasts…even when we fade away, that doesn’t mean what we’ve done will be forgotten. Lup’s friend, Barry, he’s going to live to tell our story, and so will Pokémon she’s met and I’ve met and hell, even that you’ve met! Sure, maybe we won’t be here, embodied, anymore, but…that’s the easy part! Just kick back and chill while the rest of the world tells your story. Me and Lup are heroes, Krav, Istus too. And…that could’ve been you.”

“Me,” Kravitz says, and he laughs, slumping so he’s lying down, using the wall to lean against, paws stretched in front of them. “That’s…” he trails off. “I can’t fathom death,” he says, “I never could. But…”

“If I disappear right now,” Taako says, “with everything I’ve done, everything I’ve tried to do…all I’ve accomplished would still live on. And that’s living, in a way. Lup could put it way better than me.”

“Even after death…” Kravitz mutters, more to himself, turning the words over like you might turn over a rock to find something interesting underneath. “I…I know I asked, but I wasn’t expecting such an honest answer.”

“If I can’t be honest in a shitty cave before going to fight the goddess of time then frankly, my man, I don’t know where I can be,” Taako says. He stops his pacing, half-flattening his ears. “You’re…okay. I don’t know. You’re something. I’ve always had something.”

“Lup,” Kravitz says, and Taako nods. “She made you join us, right?”

“Always,” Taako says, sitting back. “Lup is…she’s the best, there’s not really a better word for it. She wanted to save the world the second we found out that was an option, and I’m always going to be there with her. It’s…Lup is the one I love the most, fading away isn’t that scary when I knew I’d be with her throughout it. And sure, the situation’s changed, but…I’m proud of her. I always am. I know she’s going to save the world and even if I’m just here not doing much in comparison…I’ll do my best to help.”

“I’m sorry,” Kravitz says, and Taako blinks, looking over to him. “That—that she forgot about you, I really—I had nothing to do with that, I’m just—sorry.”

Taako sighs. “I know,” he says, “I’ve always known. You’re just an Absol, you can’t do something like that. It was. We were rushed, I just.”

“She’s still herself,” Kravitz says, “when I was in the past, I kept suspecting she was Lup, but before she told me anything, I just assumed it was more of an extreme coincidence, since I figured Lup wouldn’t be so okay with me. But…no, she’s Lup. I forgot how fun she was.”

_You aren’t allowed to talk about her, _Taako thinks, _you betrayed her, twice. _

He doesn’t say it, though. He’s not sure how strongly he feels about it, right now. Kravitz…he’s fucked up. A lot. But here and now, Taako’s just…Taako doesn’t really hate him. He just…is. He’s Kravitz. He never really thought too hard, about why Kravitz betrayed them. Just figured he was a liar from the beginning.

Taako has never been very good at listening. A few months alone forced some of those skills onto him.

Instead, Taako laughs, a little bit bitter, and rolls a tad closer to Kravitz—they aren’t touching, but it’s enough to be obvious that the other is there. Lup used to spoil Taako with affection. He’d do the same right back to her—physical touch was a comfort for them both. This is close enough.

“She always wanted to be a Vulpix,” Taako says, unsure if he’s saying this for Kravitz or himself, “was always upset her fire never manifested like my ice, especially when we were kids. I loved her, I knew we were siblings even if we didn’t share similar shapes, even if most others looked at us and thought us delusional.” He’s reminded of his first meeting with Kravitz—at least there’s one thing he didn’t fuck up. “They never mattered. We used to…fuck, we used to tell stories about waking Jirachi, wishing for her to be a Vulpix. I’m just…glad she got her wish, despite everything. I agreed that if I was the one to find Jirachi, I’d use my wish for her, and I still feel that way.”

Taako was always fine being a Vulpix. Lup was restless as a human. He could understand—to feel the fires in you and not be able to summon them? He remembered before he figured out his ice, when it was all bottled up in him and he couldn’t do anything about it. He never wanted anything, just for Lup to be happy and comfortable, and he’d never, never take this away from her.

“I’m sorry,” Kravitz says, again, “I don’t even know what for, just—”

“Yeah,” Taako says, “me too. You can’t fix the past but you can change the future, or whatever. Literally in this case, though I guess we’re changing both the past and future? Fuck if I know. Should we get going? Are you rested enough?”

“I think so,” Kravitz says, standing, and Taako follows his lead, heading out of the cave and off the direction Mamoswine pointed out. “Taako, I…thank you. For…talking.”

“Right back at you, Kravitz,” Taako says, and he hurries out of the cave before he can see Kravitz’s reaction.

* * *

The path takes them through what Taako’s calling an icicle forest: it's much like what Mamoswine drew out. The icicles are tall, much, much taller than him or Kravitz, and they border both sides of the path and continue on for as far as Taako can see. There’s no frozen snow or hail over here, though there is something else that stands out—the tops of the icicles crackle and spark with an electricity of some sorts, purple-pink sparks of energy. It’s nothing Taako’s ever seen before, the first instant of color and motion in this world that isn’t something alive.

“This is a weird place,” Taako comments to Kravitz, who’s just a little in front of him—faster because he can take bigger steps. “Know anything about it?”

Kravitz opens his mouth to answer, but he’s cut off by a sound of question, and Taako turns to see a Snorunt staring right at him. He crouches, ready to pounce and attack because oh, is this that the fucker who attacked him? Cause Taako’s not the forgiving type—only to quickly realize, when the Snorunt starts trembling, that it isn’t the same one.

“That’s a different Snorunt, don’t attack them,” Kravitz says, pawing at Taako’s shoulder to get his attention. Taako sighs, standing out of his crouch.

“Don’t worry, I figured that much out. Hey! Snorunt! You didn’t happen to see anybody go by, did you?” Taako bounds over to them, Kravitz hanging back. The Snorunt, though, keeps shaking, and Taako tilts his head. He’s not…oh. Right. The language difference.

He drops his tail, letting is hang relaxed, rather than up and visible. His ears settle casually, perked on his head—curiosity, but nothing more forceful. “Did you see anybody go by?” he repeats, keeping his tone friendly. To help, he quickly draws out who they’re looking for—Primal Dialga, Istus, maybe some Sableye…

Snorunt looks down at the pictures, and nods, saying words Taako can’t understand, but sound excited enough, pointing into the icicle forest to their left. That’s…Istus must’ve been captured already, then, and Kravitz comes up just as Taako realizes that.

“Was there another Pokémon with them?” Kravitz asks. “Probably who looked very powerful?”

Snorunt shrugs hopelessly. Taako gets it. He’s not sure how to convey ‘a powerful new henchman but we have no idea who they are,’ so he twitches an ear in thanks, and then they prick right back up when he hears that same crackling from the icicles, but louder, much worse. And then jumps backwards when the large icicle in front of him starts sparking more than he’s ever seen before—not just the top, but the entire pillar, going from gray to the purple of electricity. The Snorunt sees this and bolts, which, yeah, fair response, Taako would run, too.

“That’s…intense,” Kravitz says, difficult to hear over the roaring of the electricity, shooting off from the tip of the icicle in aggressive sparks. Taako takes another few steps back, just to be safe, head craned to get the entire icicle into view as it fizzes and flashes. It doesn’t last for very long—a minute, max, before it dies down and goes back to its normal levels of fizzing.

“Wonder what they are?” Taako asks, creeping closer to the icicle and poking at it, but nothing happens. He sighs, rearing up to rest his forepaws on the base. “Lup would love an adventure like this,” he says, “though I guess climbing Temporal Tower back in the past is one. It’s always been the two of us, it’s…weird that she’s not with me for this, y’know? She’s…safety.”

“My first adventure with her in the past, she told me to jump into quicksand. And Barry agreed,” Kravitz says, joining Taako in poking at the icicle.

“Yeah, that’s my sister,” Taako says, fond. He drops back down, steeling himself. They’re close, real close. Just have to go through the icicle forest…and then he’ll find Primal Dialga, hopefully before she sends anybody to the past, and he just has to distract her enough for Lup to save the world. Easy enough. “We should get going,” he says, heading the way Snorunt pointed out, “we don’t know how much time we’ll have.”

The icicle forest is a weird place, Taako decides. The icicles crackle and spark as they trek through it, getting more frequent and louder the deeper they go. Conversations are dropped in favor of keeping up a fast pace, because who knows how long it’s been, but if Istus has already been captured, they’re too late on that front, and they can’t be late on any other.

Running through the icy forest is easy, for Taako, and he doesn’t trip once, flooded through with determination. He’s going to do this. He’s not going to fail now. He’s not alone anymore, and he’ll have a third ally in Istus once they free her, and then Taako is going to murder this final agent and let Lup and Barry save the world and be fucking happy with that.

He’s done so much, with his life. He can do one more thing.

There’s the smallest of paths, that snakes through the forest, and Taako mostly follows that, trying not to lose it, and when he does, trying to keep an eye out for it. That’s where he and Kravitz are now—they’ve been running for a while, so they have to be close, right?

The path starts to incline, a tad, and Taako notices that it widens—are they getting somewhere? The air here tastes weird, super-charged, and it makes the fur on his neck stand on end, but that doesn’t matter. Electricity crackles around him, louder than ever, and up above, Taako can see where the path ends. A clearing, indeed, empty other that four bent and sharp-tipped icicles, spaced apart but if he drew a line between them with a paw they’d connect in two diagonal lines—an ‘x.’

And there, beyond the four pillars…

“It’s Istus!” Kravitz says, and the two of them charge, though Kravitz stops a bit further back—probably doesn’t want to face his mom after everything he’s done. Cowardly, but Istus is—is _trapped, _Taako realizes, surrounded by a sickly purple-green energy that Taako fucking recognizes. There’s an odd shaped rock in front of her, and Taako recognizes that, too.

“Istus, we’re here to rescue you,” Taako calls, pricking his ears—but nothing. She doesn’t answer, which means she has to be knocked out, which means… “Spiritomb,” he says, and the swirling form of Spiritomb pops out of the odd rock, cackling in that always-echoing voice. “I was hoping Lup killed you for good. Let Istus go!”

“You’re WRONG!” Spiritomb practically giggles, high-pitched and giddy with glee. “Wrong, wrong! You’re wrong!”

“What do you mean I’m wrong, you’ve done this exact same thing to me!” Taako spits, stalking closer in a crouch, hackles up, tails brandished out behind him.

“Not OUR doing!” Spiritomb says, their voices bouncing in Taako’s ears, just slightly off-beat. He flattens his ears and barks out a sharp sound—a warning. “You’re wrong! Please believe us!”

Spiritomb cackles again, but Taako isn’t paying attention to them—his vision throbs like a heartbeat, and he bristles, his eyes going wide as he’s flooded with an overwhelming, instinctual _fear, _every nerve in his body screaming for him to run, to flee, to bury himself and hide, and hide, and hide. He looks around, frantic—there’s Kravitz behind him, Istus and Spiritomb in front of him—where the fuck is this coming from? His tails droop, and he doesn’t crouch, but cowers, and he—no! What—where?

There’s nothing here, but he can’t get the dread to leave, but it doesn’t make sense! He shakes it off like trying to shake off sticky mud, leaving it clinging to his pelt, the air buzzing around him like even that is telling him to run. He digs his claws into tiny cracks in the stone, because no! He’s not running from this! He doesn’t care what it is, he’s freeing Istus and he’s protecting Lup and some stupid feelings aren’t going to stop that!

“Let Istus go, or I’m attacking,” Taako spits, and he manages to mostly keep his voice from wavering.

“You’re wrong!” Spiritomb sing-songs, making no moves to let Istus go, though he does notice her blink, obviously waking from being knocked out. Spiritomb must notice, too, as they add, “you sure picked an INTERESTING time to wake up.”

“I—Taako?” she asks.

“Yeah, got your son, too,” Taako says, stalking forwards as ferociously as he can manage with dread still pooling in his gut—did he miss something? Is he wrong about something? But that wouldn’t make sense, so he snaps at nothing and lets ice prickle in his pelt.

“Don’t get closer!” Istus yells, and Taako freezes.

“Wh—” he tries, but there’s a roar in the air, and the four icicles in the clearing all glow purple at one, before the energy discharges in a beam of power, and Taako has about a split second to realize _I’m in the middle of them all _before he’s hit by the energy.

Pain. That’s the first thing he registers, in every single vein and nerve and part of him, blinding and bright and horrible, so much so that he can’t do anything but shriek with the force of it all. It’s all over, this pain, inside and out, and he—is this what is feels like to die? No, no, Taako had never imagined death being this painful—is this worse?

He can’t move. That one comes second, when he tries to push himself up, the force of the pain having knocked him over, and it’s like he’s disconnected from his body. He isn’t—he can feel pain acute in every part of him, and he yowls again, a sound that’s a keening mix of rage and hurt and heartbreak, because he doesn’t understand, he doesn’t! But when he tries to move it’s like the limbs aren’t there, it’s just been replaced by a ball of hurt hooked right up to his brain.

“Haha!” Spiritomb says, overjoyed, though Taako can’t actually see them with how blurred his vision is, mostly just the vague suggestion of shapes overlaid with a blinding pain-white. “We did it!”

“Spiritomb!” Taako yells as best he can through the pain, the word slurred and blending together. It’s not scary—his voice is thick with pain and he can already feel tears in his eyes, though he does his best to blink them away. “Y-YOU!”

“We can GO, right?” Spiritomb asks, ignoring Taako. Which is fine, Taako’s a bit more worried about how all the strength he got back from eating those Oran Berries—gone. Sapped away, like he never had it to begin with. He wails out another cry of pain. He can’t even curl in on himself like he would, he can’t move! He’s a heap pressed into the stone ground, and it hurts to even breathe, he just—over, over, when will this be over! Why isn’t Kravitz helping him? Istus? “Price Absol? We can GO?”

Somehow, those words hit worse than the pain.

“What do you _mean,” _Taako manages to choke out, a little bit glad he can’t see anything as his eyes squeeze shut like that might help against the pain. It’s. It’s Spiritomb trying to lie to him, to distract him, it has to be, because otherwise it means—

“Get a hold of yourself, Spiritomb,” Kravitz says, and Taako—the crackle of electricity is loud, yes, but no so much that he can’t hear other sounds, and one that he hears is the click of claws as Kravitz approaches. “Why don’t you stay? I need you to keep…well, you know what you’re doing.”

“You coward!” Istus yells, “What are you—” but there’s the sound of an attack from Spiritomb and she doesn’t speak again, and Taako can only assume she’s been knocked unconscious again.

“Kravitz,” Taako says, desperate. This isn’t. It’s. It’s so much worse than the first time, somehow, even though he knew, he knew this was a possibility, but he never thought—no. No!

“This icicle forest is a weird place,” Kravitz continues, as Taako hears more claws clicking against stone—Sableye, he thinks, and he cracks an eye open to see blobs of purple. “The electricity they produce, when concentrated…it has the power to melt away someone’s spirit, while leaving their body perfectly intact.”

“Fun,” Taako mutters, as it dawns on him that he’s really, really fucked. He should’ve never trusted Kravitz again! He fucking! He learned! The first time! At least, he thought he did, but apparently not! It’s just…he hoped. He thought when they—

No. Fuck! No. He just…whatever. He dies here, his spirit is melted away…whatever. He’s hopefully bought Lup enough time to save the world before Primal Dialga can send her final agent into the past, and he knows Lup will save the world, because she’s his sister and she’s fucking amazing.

“I lured you here for a reason,” Kravitz continues, and Taako wishes he had enough strength left in him to growl, or something, but everything is somehow both pain and numb, and he can hardly get his mouth to work just to speak. “When your spirit is melted away, I’ll use your body to return to the past, where I’m sure Lup and Barry will be happy to see you, won’t they? And from there, easy enough to convince them to turn away from Temporal Tower—at least enough for it to collapse.”

“Fuck you,” Taako spits, forcing his eyes open and doing his best to glare at Kravitz—but he can’t move his head and Kravitz is behind him, so he can really only glare at him from the corner of his eye. “Lup is my sister, my heart, you can’t fucking do a good enough impression of me to fool her!”

“Can I?” Kravitz asks, and he sits back—he’s not even looking at Taako, so this glare is going fucking poorly, huh? “Have you wondered why we haven’t seen the final agent yet, Taako? It’s you!”

_Lup doesn’t remember me, _Taako thinks, as Kravitz’s words finally settle around him, horrible and true and HORRIBLE! Because—she doesn’t, does she? She really doesn’t! Lup doesn’t remember him, and his own sister doesn’t remember him, but who does? Kravitz! Kravitz remembers Taako!

“How,” Taako mutters, “how, how, we’ve been together all this time, how, how—” his voice is cracking, and he doesn’t even care, he doesn’t know. He’s—but—_why—_

When Taako first woke up.

“I thought—I thought I woke up first,” Taako says, voice shaking, “but—but you did, you planned it, you…”

“And it was a lot easier than I thought to get you to go along with me,” Kravitz says. “Taako, I…”

“Fuck you!” Taako yells, the words spitting off midway though into a howl of pain as the energy intensifies, and he hurts, he hurts, he hurts in so many places and so many ways. He. It’s worse, it’s worse than last time—last time was sudden, yes, and unexpected, yes, but this time is worse and Taako doesn’t know why! He thought…he thought he was okay, he thought he wasn’t alone again, he wants Lup, Lup, Lup…

“You’re a fucking TRAITOR!” Taako yowls, ignoring the way his voice trembles, ignoring the tears spilling from his eyes. “I thought—”

“I don’t relish in this, Taako!” Kravitz says. “But I told you, I refuse to die! I’m not going to let you do that to me! I won’t hurt your sister, I promise, you’re just…an unfortunate casualty. You want to kill all of us, and I won’t allow that!”

“In the cave,” Taako says, the words bubbling in his mouth. He thinks he tastes blood. “I—we—”

Because he decided, in that cave. He listened to Kravitz and he thought Kravitz listened to him and he didn’t decide to forgive or forget, really, he decided to trust despite that, to chose change and making a new future. Was that a mistake? Is he so lonely and lost and broken without Lup that he clings to whoever he meets?

No. No. He’s Taako. He’s Taako! Taako who collected the time gears on his own, Taako who kept going even when Lup didn’t remember him, Taako who is better than this! Taako who embraced his sister and growled loud at those who dared to say they weren’t one and the same! Taako who will be remembered, who will always been one of the few who did the impossible and changed time, who will bring sun and wind and color to a world of darkness! 

He’s lost so much, is the thing. He’s lost Lup and he’s lost the chance to get to know her _all-again_, to build something new. He’s lost Kravitz once before. But. But he knows what happened in that cave. He saw Kravitz protect him. There’s a lot Taako has lost, yes, and a lot he’s fighting to protect, and if he knows one thing…he knows Kravitz. Kravitz knows him.

Taako chooses.

“Is this really what you want?” Taako asks, despite the pain. “You were in the past, Kravitz, you saw the same things I did! I get that you don’t want to disappear, I do, I get that’s why you’re on Primal Dialga’s side after all this…but is that really what you want? To give up the sun and wind and stars, not just for you, but for everyone? And for what? What do you have worth protecting in this world?”

Kravitz stares at him, now. Taako feels like he’s being torn apart from the inside-out, and he keeps going.

“When we first met, Kravitz—you were the first Pokémon I ever met who didn’t ask how me and Lup could be siblings. And I…I still remember what you said when I asked you, that like you chose your moms, me and Lup chose each other. So…I’m choosing now, too, and I’m choosing to believe that you did understand in the cave. I’m choosing to trust you.”

“T-trust?” Kravitz says, his fur bristling. “I betrayed you! Twice now! And you’re expecting me to believe that you trust me? That it’s all…water under the bridge?”

“I used to want you dead,” Taako says, “because I hated you and literally everything you stood for, but…fuck, Kravitz, you expect me to ever know what I’m feeling? I don’t anymore! Somewhere while we were traveling together, I started having a good time! It was fun! You’re fun! And…I think the same thing happened to you.”

Not once has Kravitz laughed out of malice, while Taako suffered and yelped. Before? Before, Kravitz was fine doing that, fine egging Taako on and laughing and having a grand old time with it. Taako doesn’t…sure, it may be the pain and desperation talking, but he’s not getting that vibe. He hasn’t been, for a while.

“I think,” Taako continues, whimpering at another particularly violent burst of pain, “that you have a shining spirit, Kravitz. I…you’re scared of dying? I am too! All of us are! But I’m going to keep pushing forwards because I have Pokémon I care about! I have Lup, and she’s pushed me this far…and I’m not going to fall now. Please, Kravitz is this…really what you want?”

“A shining…spirit…?” Kravitz says, his voice thick with confusion. “I don’t…I don’t know, I said I didn’t know why I saved you back then, and I still don’t!” He whimpers, a broken, lost sound, and Taako can see Sableye, faintly, blurs of purple that surround Kravitz, as though they’re trying to comfort him.

“That’s—this goes for all of you!” Taako says, because it’s working, _it’s working, _he wasn’t wrong he wasn’t, he wasn’t! He knew, he knew! He can be cautious and prickly and mistrusting but it didn’t fail this time! He picked trust, and it worked! “Sableye, all of you! Haven’t you ever thought of a better future, a better life? Isn’t that worth it?”

OW, his nerves are being tugged and clawed into and torn apart, his world goes blinding pain until he can’t even see, but— “My sister, Lup, she’s…she wanted to save the world because she believed it could be better, and that’s what she’s doing right now, in the past. Maybe…maybe I was lucky, never being alone, always having her…but this world, this world forces darkness to all of us! I rejected it, I chose to follow my sister’s fire, I wanted something better, I wanted to shine!”

It hurts to talk, to choke out his final words, his brain is a mess of thoughts and emotions and pain. This is it, he knows, as numbness sets in and his already-thin hold on himself grows even thinner, the very essence of him stretched out and draining.

Lup. His sister. She’s safe, she has to be, he did it, he did it, even if he dies she’ll go on to save the world and he’ll see her again someday, he thinks. They always find each other, that’s how hearts work.

Barry. He doesn’t…know him, as well, but he was there for Lup when Taako couldn’t be and for that Taako’s ever-thankful. Lup isn’t alone and it’s all because of Barry and fuck, Taako hopes Barry knows how glad he is.

Kravitz. Despite everything…Taako trusts him. Maybe it’s stupid, it’s probably stupid, but he believes, he hopes, he wants! Kravitz who’s kept him company, who saved his life, who he had fun with, with that shining spirit of his—yes. Yes, this isn’t a mistake.

Taako’s ears ring with the outburst of electricity, everything goes white, and his world explodes with pain, so much so that he’s able to force out another wail, horrible and cracking. This is it for him, isn’t it? Isn’t it?

Taako feels everything, and floats there, numb and empty and hoping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some parts about how lup felt as a human vs a vulpix are inspired by the httyd series nightfall, which deals with a similar topic in that hiccup is a dragon shaped like a human. if you have like, a lot of time on your hands, and like dragons, go read them. they're all great, and have seriously inspired me and how i write non-human characters. the author recently finished her retelling of the 3rd movie, and made me fall in love with a character who was in three chapters that i'd never even heard of before, so. she also made me like the light fury! fucking powerful. 
> 
> anyways that's my free advertisement for nightfall it's so fucking good. seeya next week with chapter four!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako's not dead! But with his luck, he probably won't stay that way.

Taako blinks. That’s weird, because he’s pretty sure the dead don’t blink. Everything _aches, _which sucks, because he’s pretty sure the dead don’t feel, either. His ears still ring with noise, the buzz of electricity, the explosion when it all met in the middle and—

Wait.

Taako’s ear twitches. The ringing fades, until he can say with confidence that it’s just that—ringing, echoes, not sounds still roaring in reality. A paw moves barely across stone. Is he…

He tries to stand, to push his paws underneath and walk. He still can’t see much—he thinks he’s face-down. But standing doesn’t work, and when he manages to roll himself enough to see—well. There’s a lot to take in.

Firstly, him. He’s aching all over, and there’s tiny bursts of purple electricity that run around his body, sparking like those icicles did. He can’t tell if that’s where the pain is coming from. Secondly, Istus is awake, though still trapped by Spiritomb, and she looks worried. Thirdly, is the Sableye, six of them, Taako can now count when his vision isn’t just blurs, and they’re all staying back. Fourth, he sees Kravitz. Panting heavily, half-collapsed to the ground, paws folded under him as he stares at the ground and heaves in breath. He’s where Taako used to be, in the middle of the four icicles. The icicles are lifeless and dormant.

“You…” Taako coughs, the words weak. “You—Kravitz? You? Saved me?”

“Kravitz,” Istus says, “Taako…are both of you okay?”

“I’m alive,” Taako rasps out, before breaking into a fit of coughing. He’s got his spirit, still, and somehow his pain-induced speech worked, and Kravitz??? Saved??? Him??? Taako doesn’t even know how he’s supposed to process that one. He. He’s not sure…?

Kravitz doesn’t say anything, though he does twitch his tail, faintly, and Istus seems to relax. She looks like she’s about to say something, but then the world goes darker, and if Taako could move better, he might jump. There’s a horrible, echoing roar, and then the entire ground shakes when Primal Dialga explodes into existence right in front of Kravitz, as though she’s jumped off a mountain and landed. The Sableye and Spiritomb all back away, but Taako can’t move, and neither can Istus, and he’s honestly not too sure how the fuck Kravitz is doing. Shitty, he can guess.

“Di—Dialga,” Kravitz stammers, “I—”

He’s cut off by another roar from Primal Dialga, who lashes out with a giant, clawed paw, and effortlessly slams it into Kravitz, sending him sprawling backwards. He whimpers, staring up at Primal Dialga from his new position as she storms towards him.

Fuck. Fuck! Taako has to—but he can’t get his body to cooperate, can’t move his paws so he can stand up, but Kravitz is going to get killed and he just saved Taako so he’s not allowed to die without that being resolved!

It’s meaningless, as Kravitz is just hit by Primal Dialga again, and again, and Taako’s ears flatten with every single pained whimper—of course his ears still work fine.

Nearby, Istus is struggling at her bonds, obviously panicked, and the Sableye look between each other and Primal Dialga, before seeming to come to a decision, and swarming her. Part of Taako wants to cheer them on—they’re the only ones who can move, and fuck, they might not be so bad if they’re just trying to help Kravitz. But Primal Dialga roars, flashing with a bright light that knocks all the Sableye off of her, and she advances again.

Istus growls, and then flares and disappears—something Taako recognizes as her traveling through time. It barely even works for a second, though, as Primal Dialga roars, shattering whatever path Istus was using—and Istus is still trapped.

“Fuck,” Istus says, with feeling. And then, she yells, “Raven! Look at what you’re doing, don’t tell me you’ve become so corrupted that you’d attack your own son!”

_Wait, what_—

Primal Dialga ignores her and advances again on Kravitz, who’s staring up at her in wide-eyed terror, the kind that Taako doesn’t think he’s ever actually seen on Kravitz. “M-Mom,” Kravitz says, “Mom, Mom, please, why are you doing this, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, don’t do this, why…” but his words trail of into whines and whimpers when she attacks him again.

Mom? Mom? Taako is lost, he’s stuck and he’s got no idea what is happening—is Primal Dialga’s name Raven? How does Istus know that? Why is Primal Dialga Kravitz’s mom, what the fuck is going on? He tries to stand, but it still doesn’t work—he’s got the same flickers of purple electricity. Are they working like a paralysis?

Primal Dialga roars, longer and worse than any other time she has before, a sound of rage and hatred and nothing else. It’s a sound that makes Spiritomb jump, Taako notices, and the Pokémon Lup really should’ve just killed pulls their magic off of Istus, and bolts.

Istus is up in an instant, her wings flapping as she shoots off towards Primal Dialga. “Raven! Fight me if you’re going to fight someone, I’ve been the one leading everyone against you from the start!” She calls up a flurry of multicolored leaves, all of which she pelts at Primal Dialga, who roars and turns to face her, leaving Kravitz alone.

Which is good, because Kravitz looks like he’s nearly dead. He just slumps onto the ground and groans.

It really looks like Istus and Primal Dialga are about to fight—which, fuck, Taako’s terrified for that, because Istus is his friend and he knows she’s powerful but she’s also maybe the size of Dialga’s eye—but the world goes bright, and Taako blinks. He manages to lift his head enough to follow the light, and sees…?

The sky, once a dark grayscale…isn’t. It’s a deep navy blue, and that’s not even all—there’s greens and purples and light blues that dance in the night sky like ribbons, and, and it’s beautiful. It’s color and movement, and Taako hasn’t seen either in what feels like forever despite being in the past a day ago—a lifetime of dark and frozen does that to you.

“What’s that?” Taako asks, gaping up at the sky with his awe.

“I think…that’s an aurora, I haven’t seen one since before…” Istus trails off as the Pokémon in the clearing all fall quiet. Even Primal Dialga turns to stare up at the sky. A faint breeze tugs at Taako’s fur, the wind welcome against his aches, and—

“Wind!” Kravitz says, his voice horse, paws scuffing weakly against the ground as he struggles to stand. “That’s…if there’s this and the aurora then that means the planet…it’s moving again.”

“Then history is changing,” Taako says, and he places a paw on the ground, not enough for him to stand, but enough for him to imagine that it’s for his sister, back in the past, somewhere. “Lup… Barry…you did it.”

He’s never been prouder of any two Pokémon in his life.

The peaceful little moment doesn’t last long, though. Not with Primal Dialga still there, who roars and slams her front paws into the ground, and the world shakes around them. She snarls and growls, sounds that don’t have a meaning behind them—they aren’t a warning to back off, they aren’t a challenge to just try and come closer, but sounds of unbridled rage, spat out because they’re ferocious and aggressive.

“This is bad,” Istus mutters, “she’s not even…herself, anymore, this is—”

Primal Dialga flashes bright again, knocking Istus back and down to the ground, before the gem on her chest glows, and she vanishes, taking the trembling of the world with her. The purple electricity sparking around Taako is fading, and finally, finally, he manages to climb weakly to his paws, easier, now, that the immense pressure of Primal Dialga isn’t crushing him and everybody else. It doesn’t make walking any better, but Taako’s been in pain for most of this journey, honestly, so he limps over to Kravitz as best he can, a Sableye coming over to help him.

“So,” Taako says when he makes it to Kravitz, teetering a bit. Kravitz is working to push himself up, two Sableye helping him—Taako glances behind him to see the other three are helping Istus get to her feet. “Primal Dialga is your mom, huh?”

“She’s…usually not like this,” Kravitz says, wincing as he gets all his paws under him, and sits up. He stares at Taako, blinking, and Taako notices that he’s tearing up.

“You, uh,” Taako gestures to Kravitz’s eyes, “got something. There.”

“I know,” Kravitz says, heaving in a deep breath before he lifts a paw and curls it around Taako like he wants to pull him closer. Taako could leave—Kravitz is pausing, giving him the option, but fuck it, Taako’s dumb and he wants to see where this is going. Kravitz tugs him close, drops his head to rest atop Taako’s, and oh, it’s a hug, in the best way Kravitz can give it, and it’s.

Taako hasn’t been hugged by anyone who wasn’t Lup. But this is. This is nice. Taako leans a bit into it—he can’t actually do much to add to this hug, but it’s. It’s very good, is the thing. If he didn’t just watch Primal Dialga flee to who knows where, he might want to stay here forever.

But they don’t have time for that, so Taako, loathe to do it, pulls away, and Kravitz lets him, drops the hug entirely at that.

“I—I don’t know what came over me, I’m—” he starts, but Taako shakes his head.

“It’s…fine.” Taako says. He. He probably needed that, not that Kravitz needs to know. “Are you…cool? Like. Pain-wise?”

“In literally no shape or form,” Kravitz says, rubbing at his eyes and laughing, a little. “You?”

“Yeah, pretty much the same!” Taako cheers, lifting a paw for a high-five that Kravitz returns with another somewhat desperate laugh. “Where’s Istus? Is she good? We should probably, uh, figure out what we’re going to do, huh?”

“I’m okay,” Istus says, coming up to the to of them. Taako greets her with a flick of the ear.

“Uh,” Kravitz says, blinking at her. “I’m. I didn’t.”

“It’s okay, Kravitz,” Istus says. She sounds tired, Taako notices. “You did the right thing, in the end. Raven is…very much affected by the darkness, now. Especially with history changing…but none of us will be able to face her like this.” She turns to the Sableye, who have all gathered around the three of them. “Sableye, do any of you know a place where we could rest? I think I know where Raven will be—Vast Ice Mountain. There’s a Passage of Time at the top. She’s…I never told her, when she captured me, and I doubt she’s able to focus enough to remember any time I might’ve mentioned it in the past, but she’s…driven by instinct, now. She might be able to sense it.”

“Are we…what do we do?” Kravitz asks, as their group, with the help of the Sableye, begin heading towards the mountain, hopefully to find a place to rest along the way, because Taako can’t walk up an entire mountain with the state he’s in, and he doubts Kravitz can, either.

“I mean, we have to stop her,” Taako says, “right? If she gets to the past…”

“It would be very shitty, yes,” Istus says, and Taako snorts.

“There’s a cave up here,” a Sableye says, one that ran off ahead of them. It doesn’t take too long to find the cave, near the base of Vast Ice Mountain, and Taako flops to his side the second he enters, ready to not move for a while. He’s not sure how much time they have left—but he can take solace in the wind, in the color of the sky. Lup and Barry really did it.

He scratches the ice absently with a paw as Kravitz lays beside him, though he does leave space. It’s. It’s kinda stupid. Taako debates just rolling closer, since he’ll be dead soon and shouldn’t he just go for things with the time he has left? But he’s not sure if Kravitz wants that, so he doesn’t. He's not sure if he wants it, quite frankly. He's not brave like Lup is. 

Istus joins both of them in the den, as do a few of the Sableye—Taako’s not really sure where the rest of them get off to. But everyone, all of them are tired, and need to rest. Taako rests his head against cool ice, feels it seep into his bones. He could fall asleep here, probably. He’s safe enough. And isn’t that weird to think, that he’s in a room with Kravitz, and thinks him safe?

But. Circumstances have changed.

“You two should sleep,” Istus says, and Taako pricks an ear her direction. “We have a little while. I have…some things that might work to speed up healing, but out of all of you, you two were the most hurt, and you’re both still kids.”

“I’m an _adult,” _Taako mutters, but he does really want to sleep. It’s good that he has the permission to do so.

“And I’m a few hundred years old, I’m not a kid,” Kravitz complains, and Taako’s ears shoot up at that.

“How the fuck are you that old?” Taako asks, twisting to face him. “You’re an Absol? I thought you were like, my age?”

“I’m immortal,” Kravitz says, and Taako gapes. “I thought you knew?”

“Why? You never told me!” Taako says, as he slaps the ground with a paw. “Your whole thing about death makes way more sense now! Fuck! Are you seriously immortal? Is it weird? How?”

“Uh…my moms,” Kravitz says, “and it’s okay, I guess. I’m not. I’m still not really comfortable with the fact I’m going to die soon…but. I’m. Glad I saved you? And I don’t know that I want to keep working with my mom if she’s so far gone she’d attack me.”

_I’m glad you saved me, too,_ Taako thinks, and he smiles at Kravitz, who returns it.

“It’s…she hasn’t done that before, right?” Istus asks, worried. “Just this one time?”

“Never,” Kravitz says, “Mom, I…I don’t think I would’ve stayed if she had, I’m not…”

“Do you call both of your moms ‘Mom?’” Taako asks, Kravitz giggles, a startled sound.

“I uh, I guess I do,” he says. “Huh. I’ve never thought about it that much.”

“Despite me and Raven both having power over time, we didn’t think that one through,” Istus says. “But seriously. Both of you get some sleep, I’ll try to work some healing, and then as soon as we can we go to distract Raven. I don’t know how much longer until time is fully unfrozen.”

Taako doesn’t need to be told twice. He dozes off, and if he maybe rolls a bit closer to Kravitz as he does…well. He can always pretend it was just unconscious, sleepy motions.

* * *

They’re all up and rested, as healed as they going to get, and about halfway up the mountain. Right now, it’s all of them and the Sableye, though the Sableye won’t be making this final climb—speed is important, and more Pokémon slow things down. Taako’s sure the Sableye are glad to not be doing the very stupid thing of trying to take on a raging goddess of time.

“The final fight,” Kravitz says, staring up the mountain. “This is.” He falls quiet, just takes in the view.

This is what Taako’s been fighting for, for years now. Him and Lup both—and aren’t they doing it together? The world is changing, here, growing brighter. The mountains in the distance have a hint of blue to them. There’s light coming to the sky. Dawn is nearing, Taako thinks. Morning…he never thought he’d see it again.

Istus is talking to the Sableye, and Taako goes to join Kravitz, though he doesn’t stare at the mountain they’re going to climb—he stands at the edge and peers over, at the entirety of Frozen Island spread out below them. They’ve climbed a long way, for not being at the top. Wind tugs at Taako’s pelt, and he grins at the sensation.

A grin that falls when he notices a tiny ball of light fizzing off of him—just the one, and it’s gone after a second, but. Is this…

He knew this path always led to his disappearance. He just…a little more time. He just needs a little more time, Lup, just enough to keep Primal Dialga distracted…they can do this together. Is she starting to fade, in the past? Has she noticed, yet?

_I hope you know I love you,_ Taako thinks, and he blinks his affection out at the landscape.

“Taako?” Kravitz asks, soft, and Taako glances over to him. “Taako, you’re…” he gestures with a paw to Taako’s side, where Taako sees another one of those balls of golden light.

“I’m fine, Kravitz,” Taako says, watching the light rise and disappear into nothingness. “I’ll…it’s okay. We knew this was coming. Are you…” he drops his gaze to his paws. “Thank you,” Taako says, instead, “for saving me. Uh, twice. Sorry I can’t repay the favor.”

“You…already have,” Kravitz says, and Taako peeks up at him from the corner of his eye, to see Kravitz staring out beyond the mountains, to the still ocean beyond. Or has it started to move, slightly? It’s too far to tell. “I’d be. I’d be still with Mom if it wasn’t for you…everything you said.”

“Good, then,” Taako says, and he sighs, shaking himself. “Are you ready to get going?”

“I don’t think I ever will be,” Kravitz says, and the two of them join Istus for the final stretch of their climb.

It’s almost unfair, how smooth climbing is. They don’t find Primal Dialga, though they weren’t really expecting to, not until they made it to the top, to the pinnacle. Where, hopefully, Primal Dialga has stayed, hasn’t yet charged the Passage of Time.

Taako climbs ice-covered rocks with ease, his claws good as digging tiny pawholds. Istus, as she can fly, has no trouble, and Kravitz is pretty good, too. It’s a lucky thing that Taako is perfectly adapted for mountain-climbing like this. In another life, this could’ve been his home. He’s glad it isn’t.

They confirm Primal Dialga is on the pinnacle the closer they get—they can hear her roaring to herself, noise for the sake of being loud, and Taako can feel the pressure of her presence grow and grow around him like being slowly smushed. But he’s not alone for this—he used to think it would be him alone against Primal Dialga, Kravitz, and the final agent. He’s glad it’s been turned around. He’s glad he’s not doing this alone.

Fuck. Just keep putting one paw in front of the other, try to ignore the crushing—this is it! Just one final stand, until they start to fade away, and Taako can fade happy knowing that Lup and Barry saved the world, and everything he and his sister have worked for is coming true. It’s really happening. He did this! Lup did this! They’ve done this!

Taako steps onto Vast Ice Mountain’s pinnacle, and sees Primal Dialga. She roars when the three of them approach, collapsing heavily onto the ground, and roars again. Behind her, atop a flat rock, glows the Passage of Time, a gentle blue-green. Primal Dialga snarls out, pure rage, and forces herself back up, flaring bright, a sort of boom that knocks them all flat.

“She’s in pain,” Istus says, her wings fluttering as she pushes herself back up. She sounds sad, which is weird for Taako—he’s got no sympathy for Primal Dialga—but if she and Istus are both the moms of Kravitz, Taako can guess that they’re wives, so. If Lup turned evil, Taako’s pretty sure he couldn’t fight her.

“Is it…is it because time is moving again?” Kravitz guesses, and they all watch as Primal Dialga stumbles to the side, nearly collapsing again, but she roars and stays standing, growling out nonsense sounds.

“I think so,” Istus says, frowning. “We’ll…we can’t let the Passage of Time get damaged.”

She’s going to say more, but she falls quiet and Taako notices why a second later.

“It’s getting brighter,” Taako says, staring at the sky. He can’t yet see a sun, but…it’s really. Lup and Barry won, didn’t they?

A fierce wind blows through Taako, nearly enough to send him staggering—it’s stronger than any wind he’s ever felt. He digs his claws into the ice to keep steady, narrows his eyes. The sun is rising and the wind is blowing. They just have to distract Primal Dialga, maybe return her to her senses—they have to protect the world! This world, and the world in the past.

A few orbs of light begin to fizz off of Primal Dialga. She roars, not seeming to notice them, though she does collapse to the ground and has to push herself back to standing.

“History is distorting,” Istus says, staring at herself—and Taako notices that she, too, and him, and Kravitz, all of them are starting to fizz. “This is it.”

And the three of them jump into the fray.

Well. Kravitz and Istus both do—Taako isn’t stupid and he doesn’t want to get so close to Primal Dialga, especially not in the state she’s in right now. Primal Dialga attacks both Kravitz and Istus in fierce, powerful slashes—though ones without much precision, Taako notices. Which is…he wouldn’t say ‘unlike her,’ since he hasn’t actually interacted with Primal Dialga all that much, but it’s still…weird. Not exactly what he was expecting, from this fight.

Though, Istus did say something about her being corrupted…is that what this is? She’s lost so much with the collapse of time, that she’s more instinct than thinking? Taako calls forth a blizzard to swirl around them, wild and chaotic, even more so with the added effect of the wind battering it. It’s good, this movement, and Taako laughs through his snow.

He’s not as nimble on his paws as he perhaps wants to be—he keeps stumbling over them, like there’s more of him than he’s used to, not sure what’s up with that. He still darts around at the edges of battle, avoiding the worst of Primal Dialga’s blows because really, he’s like, smaller than one of her paws, she could just step on him and be done with it. He thought Mamoswine was tall, but they’ve got nothing on Primal Dialga.

He tries to run distraction, though, which is working way, way better than he thought it would. The blizzard alone is doing pretty good, so thick with snow he can only see everyone because they’re all glowing with golden light. It’s getting a bit bright, actually, which must mean they’re closer. Taako flares with his own light, too, trying to keep Primal Dialga from slashing or clawing at Kravitz and Istus. He’s not too sure who’s actually winning, but he catches flashes of purple from Kravitz’s attacks, multicolored lights from Istus’s. He flares bright again, delighted, and then promptly trips over his own paws when he miscalculates his weight, because he’s way heavier than he thought?

That’s. A little weird. And shitty, as he’s caught by a stray blow from Primal Dialga, and goes skidding down the mountain, digging his claws in before he can get to far. Fuck. Even without precision, that fucking hurts! And it’s enough pain that he’s too distracted to keep up his blizzard. Trying to stand, is a bit more important right now. Without the snow to block, he can see multiple orbs fizzing off of his paws, and he can’t stand up.

It’s like he’s got someone on top of him—like those days he’d wake up stuck because Lup rolled onto him in her sleep. He struggles, but no matter how hard he tries, it doesn’t work; he yelps out a cry for help, hoping maybe Kravitz can come right him. It, however, backfires horribly, as that just turns Primal Dialga’s attention to him. Which, honestly? Yeah, that’s on him, he should’ve expected that.

She’s got even more light coming off of her than Taako, though, as she storms over. Taako’s efforts double, going from standing to just trying to drag himself out of the way—he’s kinda near the edge, could he get her to fall off? Probably wouldn’t knock her out for good, but it’s better than nothing.

Dragging goes a lot better, and Primal Dialga charges him. It’s not enough. She slashes into him with her giant, sharp claws, and tiny shards of ice, the best he could call up to defend himself, fall and shatter onto the ground around him. Primal Dialga roars, rearing up as if she’s going to crush him, which, nope, Taako’s not dying like this! He calls up all his strength and _pulls _himself to his paws, darting forwards in the nick of time, so she slams down on nothing. He spins and aims an ice beam at one of her forepaws, just as Kravitz makes it to them—he’s a bit slower—and bites hard into it, which, maybe not the most effective, but Taako understands the impulse.

Primal Dialga stumbles. Taako struggles to move his paws, his entire self heavy and wanting to collapse. Just…keep…dragging…if she falls with him under, Taako’s dead, no doubt.

He’s glowing a lot, too. How many orbs of light is too much? He sees a flash of pink, and then Istus is in front of him—she grabs him by the paw and pulls him into a space between time, where Taako is here and there and everywhere, all at once. It’s the shittiest form of travel, but Istus drags him far enough that by the time Primal Dialga roars and shatters their path, Taako’s no longer underneath her.

“We’re running out of time,” Istus says, hurried, with nearly as many orbs coming off of her as Primal Dialga. “It’s hard for me to keep flying, if I go down I think I’m down—we have to knock Raven over and that should be it.”

“The both of us together aren’t even as big as one of her paws,” Taako says, panting. His entire body is being pushed down, and it takes everything in him to just pick up and move a paw forward. He calls up ice, to aim for the same paw Kravitz is still biting—could they cripple one of her legs, knock it out from under her? But before he can do anything, Primal Dialga roars, and flashes again, knocking Kravitz off of her, and Taako and Istus down.

He understands what Istus means in a second—he can’t get up. It’s not pressure from Primal Dialga, it’s like he’s got something inside of him, weighing him down. His paws scrabble uselessly against the ground, leaving scratch-marks in the ice.

Primal Dialga advances—Kravitz, somehow, is still standing, though barely, teetering. He heaves in a breath and launches for her, managing to get in another bite before Primal Dialga shakes him off and he lands near the two of them.

“Fun party,” Taako mutters, trying to bat golden orbs out of his eyes. “We’re, uh, fucked, right?”

“We can still knock her over,” Istus says, calling up those same multicolored leaves. “Taako, don’t you have a distance attack? I know you don’t, Kravitz, but you bit her, twice, that will help us.”

“Ah,” Taako says, because, right, he can do an ice beam. Most of his attacks are for distance, not close-up. He changes it up, lets ice build, and…

“Now!” Istus calls, and Taako launches his ice beam with her leaves, striking Primal Dialga in the same leg that’s already taken a fuckton of hits. Primal Dialga stumbles, her leg buckling with the attack, forcing her to the ground—

And she doesn’t get up again. She does the opposite—she collapses, much like Taako already has, and he sighs his relief. They did it. He lets his head slump from the effort of keeping it up, resting it against the ice underneath. That’s done. Now he just…

Primal Dialga glows fiercely until she’s entirely overtaken by golden orbs, and then vanishes, the orbs floating and popping into nothing in the air. Taako coughs.

“Raven…” Istus says, staring at the spot Primal Dialga once was. Her wings flutter, like she wants to get up, but they’re all pretty well and stuck.

“Mom,” Kravitz says, and Istus turns to him—Taako feels a little weird between them, but he also can’t move, really. Kravitz, though, tries to drag himself over to Istus, and makes it halfway before he collapses again, the amount of orbs coming off him seeming to double. “Mom, I’m—I’m not wavering, I’m no, I was…wrong. To go against you, and you too, Taako, and Lup—I’m sorry.”

“I know, Kravitz,” Istus says, softly, “I always…suspected why you left us to begin with. I know now I was right. I’m glad…you’re back.” She starts to glow fierce, and the sound Kravitz makes is something of a choked-off sob. “I’ll see you again,” she says, before she, too, disappears into golden light.

It leaves just Taako and Kravitz, here, to watch the world end. The wind blows, still, chilly with them being so high up, and over the horizon…

“The sun,” Kravitz whispers, nearly hushed, “Taako, the _sun.”_

“One final sunrise,” Taako says, and he laughs, hooking his claws into the ice to pull him the final few feet over to Kravitz. Kravitz’s fur bristles with his surprise, but he just stays still as Taako flops beside him, both on purpose, and because he really couldn’t get himself any further.

“Thank you,” Kravitz says, as Taako rests one of his paws on Kravitz’s. “Just…for everything. I don’t regret saving you. Some stuff, yes, but not that. I’m sorry.”

Taako smiles, ignoring the tears in his eyes. “This is stupid,” he says, and because the both of them are fizzing golden light, the sun rising on their end…he bumps his nose to Kravitz’s. It’s hard, to say stuff like this in words, but Taako thinks he’s doing okay without them. He can practically feel Kravitz’s surprise—the stutter of his heart, the way his eyes go wide, but Taako just laughs and licks his cheek.

“Taako?” he asks, and Taako can hear joy in there, though, granted, it’s under a lot of surprise.

Taako uses the last of his strength to curl up against Kravitz, their fur brushing. “Kravitz,” Taako says, tucking his head under Kravitz’s chin, “your life shined, is shining. I know it is. It might’ve taken you a while, but…”

“Yours does too, Taako,” Kravitz says, resting his head on his paws so he’s more-or-less eye level with Taako, and bumping their noses together yet again. He’s smiling.

Taako just hums something soft, and the two of them watch the sunrise. The gray bleeds from the ice into brilliant light blues, sunlight warm against Taako’s fur and bouncing off shiny ice. The mountains on the horizon are awash in color, darks and lights against each other, and the sun rises above them, illuminating the bottoms of the clouds in soft creams while their tops stay purple and pink. He can even see a thin sliver of ocean, reflecting the yellow-orange-pink of the sky.

The ground shakes under them, barely, first, and then in wild, fast jolts, and Taako watches as forever-frozen rocks fall from the sky, suddenly freed, as snow and hail rains out over the landscape, no longer stuck in the sky. He nestles closer into Kravitz, glad always that he’s not experiencing this alone—that he has someone with him.

“I’m…” Taako’s going to be dead, soon, and he whispers out his words, “I’m…glad that you’re here with me. That we’re seeing this together…I…”

There’s a lot he won’t get the time to say. That he thought, once, that he loved Kravitz—that he thinks now that he could maybe grow to that point, again. He bumps his snout to Kravitz’s, hopes that gets it all across, and watches the sun despite the shaking.

He’s _happy, _he realizes. Here, warmed by the sun and Kravitz alike—he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I know,” Kravitz says, soft, nosing Taako. “I’m glad, too.”

The world falls apart.

And Taako wakes up.

The world is still blue and bright, and he’s still wrapped up in Kravitz—but it’s still. It’s not shaking, nothing is falling apart. He blinks, and he’s met again with the same sight. He’s not heavy, anymore, and so he stumbles to his paws, dimly realizing that he’s so short he’s still tucked up with Kravitz, but also seeing something that’s a bit more important at the moment.

He sees Istus. He looks to Kravitz, and sees that he isn’t fizzing orbs. And Taako stares at his own paw, and realizes that he isn’t, either.

“We’re…” Kravitz trails off, standing to his paws and fully dislodging Taako. “We’re alive,” he says, letting out a laugh. “We’re alive! We aren’t fading anymore!” He barks, overjoyed, and leans down to bump his nose once again to Taako’s before charging for Istus, trotting around her like he can’t believe she’s back. “Mom!?”.

“I told you I’d see you again,” she says, smiling, and she wraps her arms around Kravitz to give her a hug—one that is a little funny, as he is a good few feet taller than her, though her flying helps some. She lets Kravitz go as Taako approaches, not sure how close he should get since this does seem a lot like a family reunion. “If…if I’m here, then…”

She turns to the last spot they saw Primal Dialga, and Taako follows her gaze to see, at the base of the passage of time…Primal Dialga, but she’s…different. A lighter shade of blue, silver streaks rather than orange, a blue gem at her chest—not Primal Dialga, then, but Dialga herself. Senses regained.

“ISTUS. KRAVITZ.” Dialga greets, sounding somewhat sheepish as she stands. “I THINK I OWE THE BOTH OF YOU AN APOLOGY.”

“You absolutely do,” Istus says, relieved, as Dialga walks over to the two of them. Taako backs up as she thumps down—Istus fluttering up to hover beside her head, Kravitz just clambering up onto a paw, where he hops up on his hind legs to balance against her and, if she leaned down, could almost reach her head.

Taako just. Sits down. He isn’t involving himself there, he’ll just wait.

“FOR A LONG TIME,” Dialga—Raven? Taako’s not sure if he wants to call this goddess by her actual name, even if she is Kravitz’s mom. “I SAW ONLY DARKNESS. THIS CHAOS, THIS DESTRUCTION, EVERYONE I HAVE HURT WHILE I RAGED…THAT’S ON ME. AND I AM DEEPLY SORRY.”

Dialga bumps her head to Istus, seems to whisper something to her—Taako pricks his ears but doesn’t hear it, but whatever she says, Istus nods and flutters off. Dialga then leans down to give Kravitz a weird sort of hug that is mostly just her resting her head over his shoulder, which makes sense, because she is a fucking giant. When she lifts her head again, Kravitz drops back to all fours and hops off of her paw, and returns to Taako.

“Oh! Mom, this is Taako,” Kravitz says. “He, uh, helped a lot. Wouldn’t be here without him.”

“NICE TO MEET YOU,” Dialga says, blinking a greeting to Taako, and he lifts a paw in a weak sort of wave. “THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO BRING ME TO MY SENSES. I AM SORRY IF I HAVE HURT YOU.’

“Uh…yeah,” Taako says, not really sure what else he’s supposed to do. He leans against Kravitz’s leg because it’s there and he can.

“NOW THAT I HAVE RETURNED MYSELF, I WILL SUPPORT THIS NEW WORLD,” Dialga says, as the gem on her chest glows and flares out in a brilliant rainbow. “OBSERVE.”

Taako is seeing something else—it takes him an embarrassing second to realize it’s just Dialga’s telepathy, but it’s not like the others can see him. He’s seeing a scene from the mainland, one he recognizes. It’s Dusk Forest, with its still trees and gray everything. Whatever brought light to Frozen Island obviously hasn’t hit the forest yet, but…

There’s that same rainbow light, now a beam, and where is passes, time comes with it—the colors return, the trees’ dark greens and their trucks in various shades of brown, the grass blowing in the wind, the sky peeking through the moving leaves in the dusky yellows of approaching dawn. It’s time, and it’s back, the world once-frozen now changing like it always should.

The vision drops, and Taako’s standing back atop the mountain. He blinks, because…because they did it! He can’t help but grin, his tail wagging happily, and he looks up at Kravitz, who looks just as happy.

“Was this all a miracle?” Kravitz asks, looking to Dialga and Istus. “How we’re all still here?”

“NO,” Dialga says. She stands, and Istus flies back over to her.

“Then what was it? You?” Kravitz tilts his head, curious.

“I DON’T HAVE THAT POWER,” Dialga says, glancing to Istus beside her. “A BEING ABOVE ME, PERHAPS.”

“Or fate,” Istus says, and her wings flutter.

“I AM EVER-THANKFUL FOR THE THREE OF YOU,” Dialga says, “AND YOUR FRIENDS IN THE PAST, AS WELL. TAAKO?”

Taako jumps up at that, and Kravitz laughs, nudging at him to try and calm him. Taako appreciates it. He’s…mostly confident Kravitz’s mom is cool now. “Yeah?” he asks, thinking about Lup, because if he’s still here, then she must be too, right?

“WHEN YOU AND YOUR SISTER WENT BACK IN TIME,” she says, “I ALREADY KNEW, AND I TRIED TO RUIN YOUR ATTEMPT. THIS LED TO YOUR SEPARATION, AND YOUR SISTER’S TRANSFORMATION AND MEMORY LOSS.”

“Yeah,” Taako says, when she pauses. “Why are you telling me?”

“IT WAS MY FAULT THAT HAPPENED,” Dialga says, and she lowers her head. “YOU HAVE DONE A GREAT THING TODAY, TAAKO. IF YOU WISH IT...I CAN GIVE YOU BACK YOUR SISTER. YOU HAVE SAVED THIS WORLD, AND I WISH TO START FIXING WHAT I HAVE BROKEN.”

He could have Lup back. He could have Lup back, and, and he wouldn’t even have to do anything! He could have his sister, his heart, and he just—

But is that what Lup wants? She has Barry, she finally has her wish…is he so desperate that he’d force Lup back into a body she hated? He would give up his wish for her, to make her happy. And this…this isn’t his choice to make, is it?

“Could she stay a Vulpix?” Taako asks, hoping, hoping…

“I’M SORRY,” Dialga says, “BUT THE TRANSFORMATION AND MEMORY LOSS ARE LINKED—YOU CANNOT GET RID OF ONE WITHOUT ALSO GETTING RID OF THE OTHER.”

Taako takes a deep breath. Feels Kravitz beside him, sees Istus hovering beside Dialga, even Dialga herself—he’s not alone anymore. And he always, always wants Lup to be happy. “Then no,” he says, “I’m not making that choice for her. She’s got Barry, anyways. I’m sure she’ll be happy.”

He thinks back to what Lup said, when they separated in Treeshroud Forest: _when this is all over, the first chance we get…I’m going to get to know you._

“I have another idea for what I want,” Taako says, and he stands, passing Kravitz and Istus and Dialga to go to the edge of the mountain, to stare out over the landscape and to the ocean. If he’s still here, then Lup has to be too. Is she watching this same sunrise, wherever she is? Are she and Barry happy?

Wind tugs at his pelt, sun warms his fur, and Taako—Taako throws back his head and howls, hoping that somehow, somewhere, his message will reach those he wants it to.

“Lup! Barry!” he calls, and his tails wag, joy settling in his gut. “We’re still here! We’re still alive!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> where have i been? easy. writing a blup httyd au, of course. sometimes you go feral and spend seven hours spread over three days to rewatch an hour-and-a-half movie, and then spend the next 5 days writing 60k words of content. yes it was fun and yes by the end i was fueled solely by the knowledge that nobody else was going to write it so i had to fucking finish so i could read it. 
> 
> also i can't believe dialga is nearly 18 feet tall that's fucking ridiculous who thought that was a good idea? vulpix are 2 feet tall!!! what the fuck!!!! that's not safe!!! 
> 
> the final chapter is the epilogue and by god it won't take this long to show up.


	5. Epilouge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako's not going to abandon his sister.

_A few months later…_

Taako stares as the Passage of Time before him, so close he could reach out and boom, there’s his sister. He hasn’t been back to Vast Ice Mountain since the world was born anew—rebuilding took a lot more time than he expected. But he’s done, he’s played his part, he’s got one favor for saving the world, and he’s always known what it’s going to be.

“I don’t think I’ll be well received,” Kravitz says, pacing behind Taako, having not yet hopped onto the ledge with the Passage of Time. His claws click against the blue of the ice, reflecting the afternoon sun.

“Everyone likes a good redemption arc,” counters Taako. He turns to Kravitz, hopping down to sit directly in his path. Kravitz stops, staring down at him. Taako lifts up a paw to rest on Kravitz’s chest. “Seriously, though. You don’t have to do this. I don’t know that either of us will be able to come back.”

“One of my moms is the goddess of time, the other the time travel Pokémon,” Kravitz says, lowering Taako’s paw with his own, and leaning down to bump his nose to Taako’s. “I’ll be fine. I get the feeling that you want to stay in the past, anyways.”

“Yeah,” Taako says, as warmth pools in his gut like it’s been doing so often when he’s around Kravitz. He stands, hopping up onto hind paws to nuzzle briefly against Kravitz, before turning and leaping onto the ledge with the Passage of Time.

It’s a new start for both of them. The future is better now, yes, but they don’t need to rebuild it anymore—they’ve done the worst of it, and Raven and Istus both have the rest handled. Kravitz leaps up beside him, and they enter the Passage of Time together.

It’s a smoother trip, this time, though Taako still tumbles out and onto the sand, shaking and sneezing as he shoves himself up. Kravitz groans, tugging his horn out of his sand.

Taako doesn’t care much for stealth, anymore—it’s been months! He knows he’s in the right place, but hey, hopefully nobody recognizes either of them. Taako charges through town, to the weird cave he remembers staying in with Lup and Barry—Sharpedo Bluff, he thinks it’s called. They make it with no incidence, and Taako finds the bush hiding the steps, and in he wiggles.

And it’s. There’s nobody home, but it’s lived in, he can tell, with a large nest near the back of the den, notes and gear scattered everywhere—Taako steps in an Oran Berry, and quickly throws the evidence out the mouth of the cave, overlooking the ocean. Nobody will notice. Probably.

“Now we just wait,” Taako says, as Kravitz enters after him, looking around.

They end up waiting a long time. Lup and Barry don’t come home until the moon is already up, but Taako hears when they do—his ears shoot up because he hears his sister, hears her talking to Barry, her voice still upbeat despite the late hour, and Taako’s on his feet, tails wagging. Kravitz again tries to move out of view of the door. Taako snorts—Kravitz is fine, now. They’ll understand.

Lup descends the stairs and Taako tackles her, with a triumphant cheer. “Lup!” he says, staring down at his lovely, perfect sister, who’s so much like him now, so much how she wanted, and she’s happy! He can tell! She looks a bit different from how he remembers—she’s got a scar under her eye, a tear to her ear, the bag she’s wearing is way different, and she has a red ribbon hanging haphazardly around her neck, like a scarf.

“T—Taako?!” Lup says, surprised and startled, and Taako hops aside to let her up, crashing into her again with a hug, breathing in _Lup _and _sister _and _heart._ “How are you—what—I saw you—” She stumbles backwards, bumping up against Barry, who’s been watching with a wide eye.

“Are you…some really weird trap?” Barry asks, and then his eye, somehow, gets wider, and he says, “oh, definitely a trap, then.” His red robe flutters up like Taako might splay his tails to look scarier.

“I’m not a trap!” Taako says, looking back to see what Barry saw, only to see Kravitz, shock-still. Ah. Okay. “Wait!” he says, shaking his head. “Wait, wait, wait, it’s okay! Kravitz is okay! Don’t you trust me?”

Lup bristles. “I don’t trust him!” she says, snarling. “Move aside, Taako, if you’re being forced into helping him, I promise I’ll get you out.”

“It’s not like that!” Taako says, backing away to try and shield Kravitz, who really isn’t doing much to fucking help, but also, he has been dreading this exact thing happening so Taako maybe gets it.

“He did permanently scar my eye sockets,” Barry says, eye narrowed, but he doesn’t move to attack. Lup doesn’t, either, though she’s a lot closer to it—she’s already got a few fires burning around her. She has fire, now! Part of Taako wants to tackle her again.

“It makes you look battle-hardened and very fierce,” Lup coos, blinking affection at Barry, before turning back to glare at Kravitz, and, because he’s in the way, Taako. “But ALSO! You did do that, and Taako, you’ve been calling him a traitor since we met! And now you’re vouching for him?”

“I’m very sorry about the eye socket thing,” Kravitz says, crouched low and on the defensive, but whatever got him frozen he’s recovered from, which is good. Taako brushes against him for support, and he notes that Lup startles at that. Good. She knows what Taako’s implying, here. “Also, everything else I did. I, uh, really fucked up, and I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t mean anything, but I swear I’m not here to do anything like that again.”

“Then why are you here?” Lup asks, through her fires flicker out.

“And _how _are you here?” Barry asks. “You said you’d die. Lup _did_ die. She’s only been back a week, and that’s only because Dialga took pity on us.”

“Funnily enough, it’s kinda similar,” Taako says. “Don’t worry. We saved the future. You two saved the future. It’s a long story. But…I’m not asking you to trust Kravitz right away, I’m asking you to just hear us out. Me and Kravitz…well. A lot has happened since we all last spoke.”

“Are you here for good?” Lup asks, taking a cautious step forward. “Or are you just visiting?”

“Me, for good,” Taako says, “not too sure about Kravitz, that’s up to him.”

“I still don’t remember much about you,” Lup says. Her ears flatten.

“We have all the time in the world to get to know each other again,” Taako says, and Lup laughs, before she crosses the gap between them and pulls him into a hug, bumping their foreheads together.

“I’m excited too,” she says, muffled into his fur, “I’m. You really trust Kravitz?”

“Yeah,” Taako says, softly. “I do. Give him a chance?”

Lup pulls away from him, just staring into his eyes—her gray onto his blue. She nods, and grins at him, her ears pricking up. “Okay, fine,” she says, “and…Taako? I’m…I’m really fucking glad you survived this.”

“Me too,” Taako says, and here, with Kravitz at his back, and Lup and Barry in front of him—he’s pretty sure he can make a home out of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's done!! i'm free!! sometimes you have to write the content you want to read in the world and I Fucking Did It. i love taz and i love eos so smashing them both together was the right and proper thing to do. i'd also like to take this time to shout out [these](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqSSDGBU_uk&t=9595s) [two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3lChhSHl5Q&t=2357s) videos, because they were fucking mandatory to do this story, cause otherwise i'd have to be playing through the game as i wrote and i wasn't about to do that. if you have like, you know, 6-7 hours on your hands and you've made it this far without playing pokemon mystery dungeon, watch the videos! they're cut scene movies for the game and the special episode, so if you don't want to play the game yourself, watch someone else, with the added bonus of not having to spend four hours grinding in the same fucking dungeon!
> 
> i will return soon though. im not done w/ my bullshit. if anybody has ever wanted a httyd au where lup is toothless and barry is hiccup and they still fall in love...well i sure did write one! that's a thing that exists on my computer. coming to an ao3 near you in like, idk, a month. 
> 
> k bye. thanks for reading!


End file.
